


The Fundamental Basis of a Relationship

by miss_interpret



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DC Animated Universe (Timmverse), Teen Titans - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:22:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 30,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24789178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_interpret/pseuds/miss_interpret
Summary: Excerpt:Damian was no doctor, but he recalled everything he knew of the biological make up of the female anatomy as he observed the woman before him. Not sure why, he reclosed the door and locked it before making his way to kneel before her. He watched her chest rise and fall through her uneven breathing, and the heavy-lidded gaze she looked at him with called to his male instincts. Hesitantly, he spoke, “You look like you’re in need of some…,” he was uncertain of how to word his sentence, “sexual assistance.”
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Raven/Damian Wayne, Raven/Damian Wayne
Comments: 86
Kudos: 226





	1. Attraction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “We are attracted to people whose presence are rewarding to us (Clore & Byrne, 1974)” (Miller, 2012).

Jason finally spotted the group of students he was looking for during the past ten minutes huddled closely together under the staircase located outside the university gym. He grinned and approached the five male students, their whispers getting louder with each step he took. Finding an empty spot in the huddle, he crouched down and asked, “What are we playing?”

Roy looked up and saw his baseball captain. “Cee-lo,” he answered. “Pot’s at two hundred dollars per head.” Roy then reached for the three dice and began to shake them in his hand.

Jason had out his wallet the moment he saw the small pile of bills in the middle of the battered cardboard box. He took out two crisp hundred dollar bills out of his Armani black leather wallet and threw it on top of the pot of poorly straightened bills. Seeing this, Roy spoke, “What about Damian?”

Jason furrowed his brows at his baseball teammate, not understanding why Roy was bringing up his brother. “What about him?”

“He’s the president of the student government,” Wally pointed out as if Jason didn’t know that fact himself.

“And what?” Jason dismissed, but his question fell on deaf ears when Roy rolled the dice. Everyone surveyed the dice in anticipation, each expecting a different outcome.

“3-3-3!” Roy called out with elation. “I win!” All four players bowed their head in defeat and irritation as Roy began reaching for the money.

“Hold your horses, buddy,” Jason spoke, grabbing Roy’s arm before the self-proclaimed winner managed to touch the pile of cash. “Did you forget? It’s my turn,” the baseball captain said and released Roy’s arm to grab the dice. Shaking the dice in his hand, he looked at the annoyed faces huddled around him and grinned cockily. “Think I’ll get a 4-5-6 on my first try?”

Conner laughed at the comment while the other players sniggered. Jason arched a brow at the group. Conner decided to answer Jason’s unspoken question, “The only luck you have is on the baseball field and with the girls in this school. You basically suck at everything else.”

Roy nodded his head in agreement and added, “You can roll the dice, but I’ll be the one pocketing twelve hundred dollars.”

Jason was unfazed by the insult. “Girls and baseball? Che, that ain’t luck,” he said and grinned his signature cocky smirk that some loved, a few liked, and many hated.

A few guys rolled their eyes, and Roy immediately grabbed Jason’s hundred-dollar bills and threw it at its owner. “Take your money and leave or hurry the fuck up and roll the damn dice, you cocky shit,” he said annoyed, although he couldn’t stop the smile from showing on his face, which caused the whole group to laugh.

“I’ll show you I have luck in other things besides baseball and women,” Jason said to Conner, raising his hand to roll the dice.

“Prove it and I have no choice but to bench the baseball captain for their first game.”

Everyone looked to the newcomer and groaned as the last person they wanted to find them found them. The only one that didn’t groan was Jason who instead had a smile on his face. “Dami!” Jason exclaimed and welcomed his brother with open arms as though Damian wasn’t the student government president with a duty and reputation to uphold and he wasn’t just caught breaking the university rules by gambling. Damian simply raised a brow at his brother’s casual demeanor, knowing that Jason was trying to use his body to hide the scene while also buying time for the guys to flee.

“It’s my win,” Roy said and grabbed the cash as he was standing up, getting ready to escape the scene, while the others were busy grabbing their belongings, ready to run as well.

“It’s too late to try to hide,” Damian said, facing Jason’s grinning face but directing the comment to everyone.

Wally peeked from behind Jason. “What are you talking about, Young Prez? As far as we’re concerned, we were all in the gym playing ball,” he said with a wink before running with everyone into the gym, leaving behind a grinning Jason and an unamused Damian.

“Relax,” Jason said with a nonchalant laugh after the boys were out of sight. “And just so you know, benching me will make you public enemy #1. Not that you already are,” he added comically. Checking his watch, Jason noted ten after noon. “Have you eaten, yet?” he questioned as he patted his stomach, feeling hungry.

Damian silently eyed his older brother for his laid-back negligence and had half the mind to call him out on it but decided to let it go. Reasoning with Jason was a lost cause and will only cause him a headache. He’s seen Dick try and fail many times.

“Found him?”

Speaking of the devil, Damian thought, and the two brothers turned to face their older sibling who always wore a smile.

“What’s this? An intervention?” Jason commented with a raised brow. “If so, we’ll need the annoying one, too, won’t we?” He made a show of scanning the vicinity. “Where is the short nuisance?”

“Right here, asshole,” Tim replied as he appeared from around the gym building. “And I may be the shortest, but at least I’m not a tall, pugnacious idiot.”

Jason made a wounded face, placing an arm around Damian’s shoulder, who had already reached his height when he turned 18 a year ago. “Why you gotta do Dami like that?” he tsked and shook his head.

“Leave Damian alone, Jay,” Dick piped with Jason returning a quick glare at the nickname. “He has enough on his plate.” At this, Tim let out a petulant scoff and crossed his arms.

Jason had the gall to pinch Damian’s cheek. “Ah, yes, the young true blood is on trial.”

Damian scowled, not sure what he found more annoying: Dick’s over-bearing brotherly affection, Tim’s rivalry with him, or Jason’s penchant for mischievous humor at his expense. Choosing not to give in to Jason’s bait, Damian pushed Jason off him.

Lightly laughing, Jason shifted his attention to Dick. “What’s up? Why’re we gathering?”

“Checking if you’re alive. Why aren’t you answering your phone?” Dick questioned with concern.

Jason furrowed his brows and began patting his body. “Fuck…” he muttered, finding his pockets empty.

“What? You lost it?” Tim asked and shook his head after Jason gave a sheepish shrug.

“Typical,” Damian muttered with annoyance, finding the whole thing trivial. Not wanting to waste any more time with his brothers, he spoke, “Since we established he’s clearly alive, I’m going to take my leave. I have class in an hour.”

Dick prevented him from leaving. “Let’s have lunch first. We still need to discuss Alfred’s birthday.” He looked at the taller boy in the eyes, pleading him to _‘try’_.

The youngest Wayne hesitated for a second until Tim said, “I’m sure it’s not above an al Ghul to plan a party for a loved one,” then added contemptuously, “although it may be above an al Ghul to actually love someone, huh?”

Damian gritted his teeth, turning to Tim with a hard expression, looking down to the older male. “Your insecurity is pungent, Drake. Don’t feel threatened just because I’m the _blood_ _son_ ,” he snapped derisively.

Tim scoffed in response, uncrossing his arms and glaring up at the younger male. “Everyone knows you weren’t exactly created out of love. And as far as I’m concerned, _Father_ already named me his next successor. What makes you think that he’ll let an al Ghul run his company?”

Damian grimaced, unable to deny Tim’s words. He clenched his hand, wanting nothing more than to punch the living shit out of the shorter male.

“Damian,” Dick called and held his arm in an effort to calm down the youngest Wayne. Damian immediately shrugged his arm out of Dick’s grasp and stormed off. “Damn it, Tim. That was uncalled for,” Dick reprimanded.

“He’s always going to be an al Ghul,” Tim pointed out. “He lived with them until he was sixteen. Four years isn’t going to erase that.”

“He still has more Wayne blood than any of us,” Dick retaliated before letting out a sigh. “Look, I’ll see you guys at the gala tonight. And buy a new phone, Jason,” he said before going after Damian.

“And I thought I was the jerk,” Jason spoke when Dick disappeared from their sight. He raised a brow at his younger brother half-sulking and half-pissed. Draping an arm over Tim, Jason began leading him to the cafeteria. “Let’s grab something to eat. I’ll buy.”

* * *

The University of Gotham was renowned throughout the country for its highly sought-after criminal justice program, as well as business, engineering, and psychology. The last being the reason Raven found herself in her fourth year as an undergrad psych major with a minor in liberal arts traversing the halls of Gotham University.

The 21-year-old made her way across the main courtyard to a secluded tree she has adopted as a favorite place to read outside of her room and library, passing by the intricate sculpted fountain and the magnificent botanical garden maintained by the agriculture department. Raven knew that the reason Gotham University was such a beautiful and technologically advanced campus had to be due to who the university’s benefactor was. She wasn’t sure if it was modesty or pure arrogance that not one building was branded with the Wayne name since everyone and their mother knew of their influence over Gotham City.

Finally arriving at the oak tree that stood several meters from the main courtyard but still had a good view of the fountain, Raven dropped her bag and perched herself against the base of the tree, legs crossed. She fished out her _Intimate Relationships_ book from her bag and began to read the assigned chapter. “Attraction,” Raven read the title aloud with slight cynicism. The Psychology of Intimate Relationships wasn’t a class she signed up for with enthusiasm rather than a class she just needed to fulfill an elective requirement. In fact, two weeks into the class and she didn’t gain anything new or insightful of how humans interact with each other. Surprisingly, though, she found the class rather amusing for the fact that studying for said class proved to be more engaging when she related the material to the entire student body.

It became a pastime of hers, especially in between classes. After reading a chapter, she would find a place among society and simply observe the people interact, taking notes of their behaviors and mannerisms and relating them to the chapter she had just read. She made a game of trying to predict proceeding events. Although she wasn’t being serious, some of her predictions had come true, such as Garfield Logan and Terra Markov dating or Conner Kent breaking up with M’gann M’orzz. Then again, it doesn’t take a psych degree to predict two incompatible people going their separate ways. Some things are quite obvious, just like the chapter she was reading. She almost found it a joke. It doesn’t take immense research or doctorates to know that attraction will always start with physical looks, and yet here she was wasting an hour reading that exact thing.

Raven placed her textbook back in her bag and lifted her head, noticing more students had gathered in the main courtyard while she was lost in her studying. She then felt her phone vibrate continuously, a reminder that her literature class would be starting in 15 minutes. Standing up, she slung her bag over her shoulder, gathered her notebook and phone, and proceeded towards the liberal arts building. Flicking through her phone apps as she rounded the corner of the hallway, Raven ungracefully collided into a broad chest, the impact causing the contents in her hands to fall to the floor.

“My bad,” she heard the familiar smooth voice belonging to Dick Grayson say and felt him grab her arm to steady her.

Raven shook her head in return. “My apologies. I should have been watching where I was going.”

Before she could retrieve her book, Dick had leaned down to grab it for her. “Here you go.”

“Thanks,” she replied, moving to take the book only for it to be removed from her reach. She furrowed her brows at the action.

“Come on, Rae. Not going to acknowledge me?”

At this, Raven tried to calm her heartbeat that has slowly been increasing since she was aware of who she had ran into. She heard rumors that he returned for grad school, but it was only now that she confirmed the rumors with her own eyes. And like before, his mere presence had some sort of effect on her that she wanted nothing but to get away from him just so that she can breathe easy once more. Since Dick towered over her, she had to crane her neck to look him in the eyes, meeting clear blue irises with her violet ones. She offered a small smile. “Long time no see, Dick. It’s been what… two years?”

“Has it? I feel like it’s been longer.” She felt his eyes give her a once over, taking her in. Raven almost wished she was wearing something other than dark skinny jeans and a slightly oversized dark blue hoodie. She unconsciously ran a hand through her long dark locks that had since grew past her bustline from when she last saw him. “You look good as always.” His smirk turned into a smile, and he finally relinquished her book to her.

Raven took her book, ignoring his compliment, and, not really relishing being around a Wayne, began walking towards her class. She could feel scrutinizing eyes on her and wanted to get away from them. “I have class now, but it’s nice seeing you again,” she said before quickly disappearing into the room, not giving him time to say anything further.

“What’s that about?” Damian spoke, coming to stand beside Dick after watching the whole interaction.

“She’s always been a private person,” Dick answered as he stared at the room Raven escaped to.

Damian raised a brow at his older brother, finding his attitude somewhat strange. “I’m talking about you. Is there a female on this campus that you or Todd haven’t slept with?”

Dick snapped his head to Damian, his mind registering what his younger brother just insinuated. “What!? No. We never… Didn’t you say you have a class soon?”

Damian scoffed. “Nice save,” he said and began walking towards the same door Raven entered.

“You have the same class as Raven?”

“If that’s her name, then yes. Why?”

Dick hummed contemplatively before shaking his head in response. He turned to leave but not before reminding Damian about the gala. “Don’t be late. And stop letting Tim or Jason get to you.”

With a clench of the jaw at the reminder of what happened earlier, the younger brother waved off the older’s concern in annoyance before entering the room. He noticed that the female that was conversing with Dick was now searching her bag almost frantically. Damian’s hand tightened around the object in his hands, knowing it was what she was looking for. She was too busy blushing from Dick’s words to notice her phone had slid to his feet. Damian made his way to her table and wordlessly placed her phone on her desk.

Surprised and relieved, Raven wanted to express her gratitude, lifting her eyes to convey her sincerity only to lock with the pair of deep green she was trying to avoid. Almost immediately, her blood rushed as certain memories flooded her mind. Willing the images away and keeping her face neutral, she averted her gaze, grabbed her phone, and muttered her thanks. Noticing he still stood beside her desk, she hesitantly glanced back up at him to see his brows creased down at her. “Yes?”

“Does he know?” His question came out harsh and somewhat accusatory, putting her on edge.

Despite the lack of context, Raven knew who and what the youngest Wayne was referring to. “No,” she replied back in a similar tone. She then watched as his eyes did a glance over her seated form before nodding as if he was ascertaining a theory. After another silent, awkward second with more people entering the room, he finally left to sit in his usual seat at the back of the class. For the duration of the class, Raven tried not to think of Damian and their brief uncomfortable exchange nor of the day she first met him.

* * *

Later that evening, Damian tutted as he fixed his cufflinks, not liking the thought of walking into a room full of people he neither knew nor cared about. He looked himself over in the mirror before exiting his room to wait for his father in the second-floor grand room so the family could make their appearance together. It’s only been four years since his mother gave him over to the Wayne household. Two of those years he spent in a monastery-slash-boarding school for his “violent, rash, and disrespectful behavior” as he constantly got into fist fights with his brothers and schoolmates.

After finishing school, he returned to Gotham and was put “on trial” until he finished college. He needed to prove he was his father’s son not only in name or DNA but in behavior and mannerisms. Even now, the papers continued to label him the “al Ghul son.” Damian scowled, thinking about how he must put up with such trifling matters for two more years, but he knew that returning to his mother was not an option. Not right now. Not if he wanted to inherit the al Ghul legacy.

At sixteen, after his grandfather was assassinated, his mother finally revealed to him who his father was and practically abandoned him at his father’s feet under the pretense he would be safer. Damian was defiant, refusing to go with someone he didn’t know. He didn’t care how rich or famous he was. Damian was adamant to seek revenge against the person who dared target the ruling mafia family of Gotham City, to return the favor to the individual that killed the person he had respected most.

He would never forget the look on his father or Alfred’s face when his mother slapped him in front of the manor, the sound echoing into the open air. She seethed and quietly warned him so that only he could hear that if he were to be kicked out before turning 21, he would return to nothing. Raised by the highly respected and highly feared Ra’s al Ghul, Damian did not want to see The League under someone else’s rule. Until then, he was busy playing dress up, pretending he cared about the current trends of food and artwork among the pretentious and ostentatious.

“Looking spiffy, young blood,” Jason commented as he entered the grand room. When Damian refused to acknowledge him, the second oldest pouted playfully and asked, “You still upset from earlier?” He saw Damian scowl further, and Jason had to bite his cheek to prevent a grin from escaping. His young brother was just as tall as him and almost 20, yet Jason couldn’t help but find him adorable as if he was still 13, not that he knew him at that age.

“Jason,” came the deep voice of Bruce Wayne. Damian turned around to face the person he looked so much alike. That first day he met his brothers, Jason had looked him up and down and said, “Unless he got plastic surgery, I don’t think it’s necessary to get a paternity test.” For legality issues, they still took one. “A mini-Bruce Wayne,” Dick had remarked looking over their father’s shoulder at the test results. “Our family is getting bigger.” Damian had frowned at that statement as it bothered him for a couple of days, unsure why.

Dick and Tim stood behind Bruce, everyone dressed in an expensive suit. Bruce usually took the time to address the purpose of the gala and what type of behavior was to be exemplified. Every move and word said during these public events was deliberate and calculated, all for the benefit of the company image. Damian mused how that aspect was not far from how the al Ghuls went about their business meetings. People above and under the law don’t seem to be different when it comes to business. Or maybe it is the fact that business itself is built on selfish motivation.

Bruce turned to Damian. “Since this is your second public function, you’ll be beside me at all times.” From the corner of his vision, Damian saw Tim roll his eyes. “The public needs to see more of you in order to accept you,” he explained. Damian didn’t feel the need to nod or give a verbal confirmation, and Bruce didn’t wait for one.

As soon as they set foot within the ballroom where the gala was held, flashes from the invited press and paparazzi bombarded their view but they kept their distance. Bruce had set strict rules on what the press and paparazzi were allowed and forbidden to do. One of their restrictions was interviewing any of his family members. If any of the restrictions went ignored, the entire company the employee represented would be blacklisted by Wayne Enterprises. It was death to the business.

An hour later, Damian continued to follow his father as he met and conversed with almost every guest. Other than the initial greeting he gave when Bruce introduced him as his ward, Damian kept his mouth shut. He glanced about the vast room and saw Jason conversing and drinking with some older females. He spotted Tim with a few businessmen, looking at ease as they discussed whatever. His eyes finally landed on Dick behind a pillar, whose attention was captured by a waitress, leaning down to whisper in her ear.

Returning his attention back to his father, he silently observed all the people that approached him, each with a hidden agenda. A few came with compliments, hoping to become a close friend, many with business proposals, and a couple with marriage proposals, which was both simultaneously surprising and bothersome: some for his father, a few for Jason and Tim, and many for Dick. Damian was conflicted as to be relieved or vexed that they had disregarded him.

“Does that happen so often?” Damian had to ask. They left the gala to escape into library for a moment of reprieve after another father and daughter duo came up and introduced themselves, throwing so much baits that his father repeatedly ignored, much to their chagrin.

“Quite,” his father responded after the initial shock of Damian saying something other than ‘hello’ or ‘pleased to make your acquaintance.’

“Have you considered any of them?”

Damian watched his father contemplate for a few seconds before the CEO of Wayne Enterprises nodded his head. Bruce poured himself a glass of whiskey and took a small sip. “Not to the point of marriage. And if I recall correctly, Dick and Jason have also taken it upon themselves to accept a few dates.”

Damian frowned at that knowledge. “You’re not expecting me to do the same, are you?”

For one of the few rare times since he entered the Wayne manor, Damian heard his father laugh quietly. “No,” he assured, “I will never force any of you to date anyone against your will.”

Damian expected that answer. He crossed his arms, “Of course. You’re not like Grandfather.”

Bruce turned to look at his son at the mention of Ra’s. “Your mother?” he questioned.

Damian gave a nod. “Grandfather had sometimes commanded Mother and Aunt Nyssa to meet some suitors. Aunt Nyssa was more disobedient, but Mother… she always listened to Grandfather. But a match was never made in the end, and I now realize why she always read the papers the day after she went on a date,” he said and looked his father in the eyes. Bruce stared at the green irises of his son, the strongest reminder of Talia and his al Ghul blood. “But I don’t know if it was because she loved or hated you.”

As he spoke of his mother, Damian realized he hasn’t heard from her since she left him. Not a single word for the past four years. He once tried to visit only to find that his entire family had moved. The means to locate them was at his disposal, but if his mother left without even saying anything to him, then she didn’t even want him knowing where they had relocated to. Damian clenched his fist as a certain feeling washed over him, making his heart tighten and feel like it was being consumed by a low fire.

“May I be excused to get some fresh air?” he requested, head straight but peering past his father. As soon as he was granted permission, Damian exited the library, making his way towards the gardens.

* * *

When Raven agreed to assist Traci in covering her shift so she could attend Gar’s weekend party, she didn’t think it was a job to be a waitress at the Wayne Gala. She had half the mind to call Traci back and tell her no. Waitressing at the Wayne manor meant she’ll see the Wayne family or worse… she’ll be seen. She already had enough awkward encounters for one day. But the logical part of her reasoned that she needed the money if she wanted to continue living alone.

Hair in a tight bun and dressed in the given uniform of a black skirt with a burgundy button-up blouse for the event, Raven listened attentively to the directives by the headwaiter as well as the butler of the Wayne estate. The butler introduced himself as Alfred Pennyworth and gave strict clear instructions on the off-limited areas. Aside from the ballroom, the kitchens, and the restrooms, everything else is basically off-limits.

Raven grabbed her assigned tray, took a deep breath, and made her way through the room filled with people dressed in fabric so extravagant she couldn’t understand why. She focused all her attention on not spilling or crashing into guests. Calmly and fuss-free, that’s all she wanted.

A chorus of greetings and flashes of light brought her attention to the side entrance of the ballroom, the one that connected to the main estate. The incomplete Wayne family made their entrance, instantly attracting everyone’s attention. She retreated to the side, staying away from the center, her eyes catching sight of the Wayne men through the heads of the crowd.

It was hard to deny the superior physical attributes the brothers possessed, unrelated by blood but each one handsome in their own right. Raven found that fact quite amusing and almost too good to be true. She briefly pondered on the requisites for a Bruce Wayne adoption. The temporary waitress could almost feel the longing, envy, and lust from the various guests that had their eyes on one of the Wayne heirs, which reminded Raven of the chapter she read earlier. As if their looks and physique wasn’t enough to attract a partner, the brothers’ background made them all the more desirable to the masses.

Raven continued her rounds, serving champagne glasses or hor d’oeuvres and returning empty trays. It was a three-hour event and only an hour had passed. She made sure to keep her distance from any Waynes. So far, so good. As she walked through the crowd, she couldn’t help overhearing the conversations surrounding the members of the Wayne family.

“Why is Bruce even bothering with the al Ghul? The entire board of directors agree Timothy is better fit to lead Wayne Enterprises,” she heard one elder woman say.

“Wasn’t he already named successor?” an older male inquired.

“Not officially,” someone had answered.

A click of the tongue was heard. “The al Ghuls are nothing but a terrorizing existence in the streets of Gotham. It’s good that their leader was killed.”

Raven bit her tongue in disgust. Murder is murder, and commending it was no better than committing it. Curiously, she let her eyes drift to the subject in question, seeing him stand beside his father, clenched jaw, expression hard, and a thin smile in place. Raven didn’t know much about Damian Wayne, but when she first saw him in the library a year ago, sitting in one of the lounge seats, _A Tale of Two Cities_ in hand, brows creased with attention focused on the pages before him, the only thing Raven thought was how poignant the entire image looked. Like now, Damian Wayne had an expression to kill, but something inside her read it otherwise. The sadness he exuded attracted her.

Lost in thought about the young Wayne, Raven didn’t realize her tray was empty until someone had mentioned it to her. “Oh, my apologies,” she said, lowering her arm and proceeded towards the kitchens to retrieve another. But before she could take a step further, she was kept in place with a hand lightly catching her wrist. She looked to the offending hand, her eyes travelling up the arm to look at the owner, and silently cursed for letting her thoughts be distracted enough for her to be caught.

“That’s the second time today,” Dick spoke, his usual smile in place. Heartbeat increasing, Raven took a step back to widen their distance, and Dick was forced to let go of her arm. “I’m surprised to see you here.” Eyes taking in her attire, he noted, “Taking odd jobs as usual, I see,” and, looking back at her face, added, “From your expression, I don’t think you’re happy to see me as I am to see you.”

Not realizing she was expressive enough for Dick to read her, she let a small smile grace her face, rectifying Dick’s inference. “I’ll always be happy to see you.”

“ _But_?”

Raven paused, cautious, and after a second, she walked to the far corner of the room behind a large intricately sculpted pillar. Arching a brow, he silently followed after her. She turned back to him and said, “As you pointed out, I’m currently working. What would people think of you socializing with the staff rather than the guests of your party?” It wasn’t a lie, but he didn’t need to know the entire truth.

The smile on Dick’s face fell. It was as if she was trying to escape him again. “I’m wounded that you think I would care about such things. We’ve known each other since we were teens, Rae, yet you ran from me earlier today.”

Raven turned her head, a light pink hue tinging her cheeks. “I didn’t _run_ ,” she muttered.

He deadpanned at her response. “Semantics,” he retorted. Noticing her eyes darting to the other people who are now glancing in their direction, he sighed. Making her feel uncomfortable around him was the last thing he wanted. He leaned down to whisper in her ear, unknowingly causing Raven’s heart to speed even further and her breath to catch.

“Dick,” she warned, trying to retreat another step, but the taller male held her by the elbow before she could accomplish her task. She could feel her blood warming just by the sheer closeness of him.

“I don’t think you would like to be seen exchanging numbers right now, so I’ll find you on campus the next time I’m there.”

She didn’t relish being seen as they are right now. The smell of his cologne mixing in with his natural scent was too intoxicating. Her senses were faltering. She licked her lips, trying to regain control of her wits. She needed to get away from him.

Leaning back up, he smiled, “I’ll let you get back to work.” He paused, staring at her before reluctantly releasing her elbow. Raven offered another smile and nodded, appreciatively, internally trying to calm the blood rushing through her veins. With a nod, he finally left to rejoin the formal event, and Raven immediately made her way to the kitchens to dump the empty tray. Not reaching for another tray of appetizers, Raven left the kitchens to find the restrooms instead, her breathing slowly becoming ragged, body becoming heated.

After all this time, Dick still affected her physically. She needed to calm herself before she completely loses any conscious thought. She didn’t need another incident as last year. In search of the restrooms, Raven realized she took the wrong turn somewhere along the way. Great, she silently scolded herself. Now she was in danger of being charged for trespassing into the richest estate in the city while also fighting against the physiological response she had towards Dick Grayson. She turned around, hoping to retrace her steps back to the kitchens when she ran into someone, both individuals falling to the floor at the impact.

“You… What are you doing here?”

What is it with her running into Wayne men at the wrong time? Raven tried to apologize for being someplace she wasn’t supposed to be, but the words were evading her. Unintentionally looking into the green eyes of the youngest Wayne heir, taking in his handsome features despite the hard and annoyed look he usually wore, Raven automatically squeezed her thighs, the ache too strong to ignore. Why did her damn body react this way?

“You were the one Grayson was talking to,” Damian realized after recognizing the uniform and hair. When she still hadn’t said anything, it was then he noted how she sat on the floor, eyes clenched shut, her body still with only the slightest of movement coming from her thighs. The movement attracted his attention in time to see her bunching her skirt. Catching himself, Damian shifted his gaze and recalled their first meeting. “Is it happening right now?”

A silent moment passed before he finally received an answer, a slight nod of her head. Damian pursed his lips, looking at the female before him. Coming to a decision, he looked up and down the empty hall before lifting her by the arm and guiding her to an empty guest room.

Raven was losing herself. The proximity of being so close to a male, whose scent was entirely different but just as alluring as Dick’s, was causing her to lose the last threads of rationality. And as soon as Damian touched her arm and hauled her up, Raven unconsciously leaned her body into his, the feel of his hard body causing the blood in her to hum.

Damian paused as she tried to press herself even closer. He gripped her arms and removed her from him, placing her in one of the chairs decorating the room. “You can use this room,” he said and turned on his heel to leave her alone. On impulse, Raven latched onto his jacket. Brows creased, he looked down at her.

The pink flush on her face deepened. “It won’t work that way.”

Damian felt his cock react to the implication of her words and the breathy way she had said them. He slowly turned his body to face her fully, and she looked up at him through hazy eyes, reminding him of that afternoon a year ago.

Damian didn’t know Raven. Hell, she never mentioned her name to him. Not even after touching her body so intimately in that empty conference room on the third floor of the campus library. Their meeting was unconventional in its entirety.

_He entered the room, looking for a quiet place to be alone when he came upon her, on her knees, breathing hard and gripping the edge of the table to keep herself upright. Concerned, he approached her, asking if she was okay, but as he got closer and saw the deep flush of her cheeks, he paused in his steps, unconsciously swallowing at the sight before him and wary of advancing towards her any further._

_“Would you like me to call for someone?” he had asked instead, and when he received no response, he turned to exit the room to call for assistance when she startled him with a firm “Don’t!” He turned back to her to see violet eyes look at him pleadingly. “Please… don’t.”_

_Damian was no doctor, but he recalled everything he knew of the biological make up of the female anatomy as he observed the woman before him. Not sure why, he reclosed the door and locked it before making his way to kneel before her. He watched her chest rise and fall through her uneven breathing, and the heavy-lidded gaze she looked at him with called to his male instincts. Hesitantly, he spoke, “You look like you’re in need of some…,” he was uncertain of how to word his sentence, “sexual assistance.”_

_She bit her lower lip, the subtle action pulling his attention. She nodded and Damian felt his blood heat at the confirmation. He didn’t know what possessed him to ask his next question, especially when he knew nothing of her. If he thought of his social standing, his family background, the gravity and sheer stupidity of his next question could ruin his life, but he asked it anyway. “Would you like me to help you?”_

_She answered by grabbing his hand and pulling it towards the apex of her thighs. Although he was taken aback by her boldness, feeling how soaked she was through her leggings made his cock harden instantly. She gasped when he pressed a finger against her. She was beyond ready, her clit swollen and sensitive through the layers of fabric. He retracted his hand momentarily and looked directly in her violet orbs as he slipped his hand past her leggings and underwear. She widened her legs to give him more access, and his fingers sunk into her._

Damian remembered the awkward way he had helped her reach orgasm with his fingers and how intrigued he was at how “normal” she became afterwards. He had interrogated her about her state, not caring how personal his questions were. She owed him answers, after all. Raven didn’t say much but he learned that it was a physiological response that affects her libido and that orgasming was the only sure way to return her state back to normal as far as she knew.

Unable to wait any longer, Raven reached for his hand as she did when they first met. Damian watched, entranced as she kissed the back of his hand and then his palm. Only when he felt her mouth enclose around his forefinger did he snatch his hand away, hissing, “What do you think you’re doing?”

She pouted, and although Damian hardly knew Raven, he observed her enough to know that pouting was uncharacteristic of her. Her cognizance was gone, now acting purely on carnal desire. Unlike before, Raven was no longer with a sound mind, so the thought of doing anything to her was out of the question.

Feeling heated, Raven began unbuttoning her blouse, and Damian immediately turned around. He may have touched her intimately, but he never saw anything. He heard rustling behind him and then a soft moan, the sound causing his cock to twitch against the restraint of his pants. He scowled at the dilemma, wondering why he was even bothering when they weren’t even friends, much less acquaintances… he paused at that thought.

“You seem to know Grayson,” he spoke into the room, and whatever rustling going on behind him stopped. “I’ll get him. He’ll be better suited to help you.”

As if she was doused by a cold bucket of water, Raven regained all awareness at the mention of his name. And when Damian reached for the doorknob, she ran towards him and shut the door close.

Shocked, Damian stared at the hand on the door before shifting his focus on the owner and watched as she steadied her breath, bun slightly loose and blouse off her shoulders.

She whispered, “Not him.”


	2. Differences in Friendship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Friendships are typically nonexclusive, nonsexual, equal partnerships, and people find themselves in unfamiliar territory as they try to negotiate an intimate friendship with someone of the other sex (Werking, 1997)” (Miller, 2012).

Silence ensnared the dimly lit room. Raven could feel his cautious gaze, sensing the questions that were swirling in his mind. Taking her hand off the door, she kept quiet, waiting for him to voice his curiosity. Instead, she heard him move. Glancing at him, she saw his back turned to her as he faced the adjacent wall. A couple of seconds passed until she realized it was because her blouse hung open, baring her chest. She squeezed her eyes as a flush of embarrassment swept through her. “I’m sorry,” she spoke into the quiet as she turned to fix her clothes.

“You appear to be okay now,” Damian spoke, still facing the wall.

Raven wanted to laugh at his chosen word. She was anything but. Now that she was back to full consciousness, she wanted to die as she thought of how she tried to seduce the youngest son of the richest man in the city. Why did she have to remember what she was doing when she wasn’t cognizant of her actions? It took her half a year to get over the embarrassment of their first encounter.

Blouse once again buttoned and tucked, skirt straight, Raven sighed and turned to face the younger male. “I seem to keep troubling you,” she apologized, and Damian took it as a sign that she was decent again. He turned to her, noting a barest of pink coloring her cheeks. She gripped her left arm with her right hand and shifted her gaze, unable to maintain eye contact.

“You said it was a physiological response that affects your libido,” she heard Damian begin and momentarily noted his businesslike tone despite the personal invasion she felt by his string of words. Raven found she appreciated the analytical way he went about things. Like the first day they met, even after having his fingers inside her, Damian was impersonal and objective as he questioned her about her condition. It made the humiliation of the situation easier to handle. “A physiological response to what?” he asked.

Maybe she spoke too soon. Pragmatism may mean professionalism when discussing topics as personal as the one at hand, but it also meant insensitivity when dealing with said topics. After troubling Damian twice now with a condition she didn’t enjoy having, Raven thought she owed it to him to answer his questions, but that didn’t mean she favored making herself an open book. She considered her words carefully.

Damian watched her mouth open and close several times. Her hesitancy, guessing who she was probably with before he collided into her, the blush she had earlier towards his brother in the hallway of the liberal arts building, and the steadfast refusal she had exhibited when he suggested to call Dick led him to one conclusion.

“You’re in love with Grayson.”

He saw her eyes widen, and he didn’t think she could’ve turned any redder. Despite this, Raven still shook her head. “That’s not true.”

Her ridiculous attempt at denial almost made him want to laugh, but he settled for a verbal retort. “Your reaction states differently.”

She glowered, not appreciating being told she felt a certain way when she just said otherwise, especially from someone she’s only exchanged words with thrice. “I was surprised at how you came to that conclusion and that you said it so easily,” she snapped a bit heatedly. Seeing Damian taken aback by her sudden display of emotion, she paused, took a moment to collect herself, and calmly denied once again, “I am not in love with him.” His skeptical look told her he didn’t believe her. Raven did not want to create any possible misunderstandings about her and Dick, and since he was the brother of the subject in question, she was forced, with great discontentment, to admit aloud, “He rejected me.”

Damian creased his brows at her words, the facts not connecting. Raven noticed it and realized her words seem to confirm his assumption of her having feelings for Dick. She especially didn’t need for that misconception to circulate back to him. And something told her that if Damian didn’t get answers from her, he’ll get them from the other party involved.

“I was sixteen when it first happened,” she started, referring to the first time she lost control of herself. “I was at some party, and Dick happened to be there.” Raven closed her eyes as the memories of her climbing onto Dick’s lap surfaced her mind. How she had grinded on him and licked his throat. She could still clearly remember his shocked look as she reached for the button of his jeans.

There was no way she was going to tell Damian any of that, so she looked at him and just said, “You’ve seen how I get…” It took her whole high school life to get over that incident. Even now, she wasn’t sure if she ever really gotten over it, especially when her actions had consequences that included more than just her and Dick.

Damian wordlessly watched as she trailed off, lost in thought, and waited for her to continue. After a minute or two of buzzing silence, he heard a faint laugh. It was so barely audible that he wouldn’t have heard it if they were in the next room, closer to the ballroom where the distant music and dissonant conversations from the gala could still be heard.

Growing up in the mafia, particularly under his grandfather and mother, emotions were not something easily embraced. Damian understood the definitions and science of the numerous terms within the human emotional spectrum. The experience of it, however, made the knowledge of it moot as Damian often found himself mulling in his thoughts, trying to make sense of the unfamiliar waves of feelings he felt as he adjusted to living as a Wayne. Like now… the young Wayne heir felt a new feeling consume him as he watched Raven quietly laugh to herself as if she regretted something and had no choice but to accept it. She sounded almost defeated. Something about the image disturbed Damian, and he didn’t know why.

She eventually continued, giving a nonchalant shrug of the shoulder, “Long story short, he told me that he didn’t see me that way.” She gave a thin smile. “That was five years ago, and I prefer not to think of myself pathetic enough to be in love with him for that long after being humiliatingly rejected when I had no control of my actions.”

There was a lot left unsaid, Damian knew, but he heard as much as necessary to know that her story and what happened earlier had a common variable. A thought occurring to him, Damian crossed the room towards her.

Startled by the suddenness of his approach, Raven backed up with every step he took until she felt the wall behind her. Although she could feel no threat from Damian, she looked up at him, puzzled and wary of his actions. “What are you doing?”

Damian tilted his head, regarding the smaller female a foot away from him. “When you formulate a hypothesis, the next step is to test it. It’s basic science,” he spoke as if that answered her question.

Raven noticed his jaw tight and eyes focused, his mind driven with whatever it was that caused him to take another step towards her and close the distance to a mere centimeter, making her press further against the wall. Their breaths now mingled into the limited space between them. But before she could repeat her question and get a clearer answer, Damian asked, voice unintentionally coming out low due to the proximity, “Do you feel anything now?”

_What?_

It took a second for Raven to fully understand the intent of his question and what he meant by hypothesis. If her heart beating unrhythmically was any indication, then yes, she did feel something. Cautious and uncomfortable, but she’s like that with everyone. And that wasn’t what he was asking. She shook her head to answer him and replied, tone matching his, “It doesn’t work that way.” The unintentional repeat of the phrase caused her to remember her actions towards the person in front of her and, for the umpteenth time, wished she were able to forget certain memories.

Damian observed her carefully, waiting for an infinitesimal of reaction from her. “So Grayson _is_ your trigger,” he spoke when none came.

Raven would have been more impressed at Damian’s quick deduction skills if she weren’t trying to hide that fact from him in the first place. From the slight upturn of the corner of his mouth, Raven got a sense that Damian can be rather highly confident to the point of arrogance in his conclusions, which reminded her of the assumption he had come to earlier. “But that doesn’t mean I’m in love with him.”

He quirked a brow at the statement. “You know the more you deny something, the opposite is more likely to be believed?” Her features formed a scowl, and he only just realized how close he still was to her as he noted the striking violet shade of blue that glared back at him. Like lightening, he stepped away from her, automatically turning his head from her view and frowning in confusion as he felt a faint heat climb his neck. He ignored the strange reaction and continued, “In any case, you’re lusting after him. Why not satiate it and see what happens?”

Again, Raven had praised his analytical nature only to condemn it right afterwards, and all in a space of less than ten minutes. For someone who the student body voted to be their student government president, she wondered if he really thought of what comes out of his mouth when he talks to people. “Just so we’re clear, you are suggesting I sleep with Dick as a solution to my condition?” Raven didn’t know if she should be appalled or amazed by how neutral his expression remained.

“Why not?” he questioned back. “I’m sure if you explain it to him, he’ll be willing to help you.”

Raven felt her blood rise at the tactlessness of Damian’s words, especially after she just finished explaining why she didn’t want to call Dick in the first place. “I knew him since I was fourteen and he was seventeen. You’re suggesting I have _sex_ _with_ _your brother_ and someone I’ve known for seven years.”

Damian didn’t understand her arguments. He didn’t see how being friends with Dick was such a plight for her. “All the more he’ll be understanding,” he countered. “If he triggers your state, then the possibility of answering to your lust might solve it as well.”

Did he not think that thought had never crossed her mind? She’s the one that humiliated herself and struggled with having the condition. How could he not think that she would’ve researched anything and everything by now? How he effortlessly spewed things as if having said disorder was the easiest thing in the world was making her upset. “That’s not the point,” she retorted, trying to make him understand. “Sex isn’t as simple as you make it seem.”

He cocked his head to the side. “It seemed pretty simple the first time we met when you had me fing—”

The sound of hand hitting cheek bounced off the walls around them.

Damian clenched his jaw and brought his right hand to his left cheek, the slight sting evidence that he didn’t imagine what just happened.

Raven froze, the throbbing of her hand confirming that she indeed just slapped the son whose bloodline is connected to the mafia. All she knew was that she didn’t want him finishing that sentence, and her body reacted upon it.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that,” she apologized, voice above a whisper. She clenched her throbbing hand and, not knowing what else to say or do, proceeded towards the door.

* * *

“Where’ve _you_ been?”

A bored Jason asked a disconcerted Damian when the latter re-entered the gala and joined him at the side of the room.

Ignoring his question, Damian asked, “Where’s Father?”

“Bruce and Tim are with the other members of the board.” Jason nodded to the other end of the room, seeing his younger brother glance about the area, a little on edge. And when Damian turned his head, Jason saw the redness of his cheek and grabbed his brother’s face. “What the hell happened to you?”

Damian pulled away from Jason and fixed his jacket and tie that got skewed from the hold. “Nothing.”

Jason saw the way Damian frowned as he grumbled his answer. “The fuck ‘nothing.’” He shook his head, then grinned, knowingly. “You got slapped by a _woman_. When did little Dami associate with the opposite sex?”

Damian glared daggers at the older male. Clearly, he was the wrong brother to approach. “I’m going to look for Grayson.” He turned to leave, but Jason placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Okay, okay, I’ll stop,” Jason lightly chuckled and held his hands up in surrender, “so don’t leave.”

As Damian was about to turn to consider if his older brother was serious or not, he easily spotted Raven making her way through the crowd. He was startled to feel relieved that she had resumed her work instead of going home. From the corner of his eye, he saw Dick surrounded by various guests vying for his attention, yet Damian could tell that Dick’s was silently on Raven.

“Can you have sexual relations with a friend?”

Jason raised a brow at his brother’s demeanor and the sudden question. He tried to follow his line of sight but didn’t see anything or anyone particularly worth noting except Dick entertaining some kiss-asses. He answered his younger brother, nonetheless. “If you’re simply asking if friends can have sex, then yes, they can.” Jason had a feeling that answer didn’t suffice. “But most people don’t go around sleeping with their friends.”

Damian pondered for a moment. “If they’re sexually attracted to each other, they would?”

Jason was astonished to see how interested Damian was in such a topic, and the usual mischievous brother found himself wanting to answer all of his younger brother’s curious questions. “That depends.”

At this, Damian turned to Jason, confusion evident on his features. “On what?”

Jason shrugged as he tried to explain. “On what they want. Is it just sex? Or do they want commitment?” He could practically see the wheels in Damian’s mind turning. Jason smiled, always amused at how Damian tries to process and understand the psychology of human interactions.

“If it’s just sex?”

If Tim or anyone else had asked him these questions, Jason wouldn’t hesitate to tease the crap out of them, but he knew of Damian’s upbringing. “You’re talking about friends having sex and remain _just_ friends, right?” He took Damian’s slight raise of the brow as an affirmative. “It’s possible as long as both parties understand and are in agreement about the act of it and what it entails.”

Jason watched Damian cross his arms and bow his head as he retreated into his mind once more, pondering on what was just said. After a second, he heard Damian mutter to himself. “I still don’t see how it’s a problem, then.”

 _Ah_ , Jason grasped his brother's stumper, although he did silently question on what Damian was referring to. When a waiter passed by with a tray of refreshments, Jason grabbed a glass of champagne and a sparkling water. Giving the latter to his brother, he said, “Aside from a few rare exceptions, that whole ‘no strings attached’ or ‘friends with benefits’ shit never really works out, though.”

Damian took the refreshment but made no move to drink, waiting for Jason to continue.

The second oldest son raised his glass towards his brother, “Because unlike you, my young al Ghul brother, humans tend to feel an array of emotions.” He ignored the glare Damian shot at him. “Somewhere along the way, those emotions will want to blur the line between platonic sex and romantic sex, and that’s where the trouble comes in. Humans are naturally insecure, selfish, and possessive, and when one person wants more and the other does not, the friendship falls apart. To some, the risk of losing that friendship is just too high to cross that line, even if they’re both sexually attracted to each other.” Jason downed the champagne and placed his empty glass on the nearby table as he continued, “If you’re just looking to release some blue balls, it’s usually easier for strangers to have sex than friends.”

Damian could do without vulgarity of that last sentence, but he will admit that the crass and crude Jason Todd provided him with some insight to the argument he was in earlier. With that in mind, he looked his brother in the eyes and expressed his thanks. He drank his drink and placed the empty glass near Jason’s.

Never to lose an opportunity to smother and annoy Damian with teasing affection, Jason draped an arm over his brother’s shoulder and ruffled his neatly styled hair. “Aww, Dami! Whenever you have questions about sex, don’t hesitate to come to big brother Jason. I’ll share with you all my knowledge and recommend you the best porn.” Jason purposely said that last sentence loud enough for the two females nearby to hear.

Grimacing, Damian threw Jason off, fighting the embarrassed heat from creeping up his neck, “Fuck off, Todd,” and left Jason to laugh to himself.

As he walked across the vast room, Damian noticed the fearful glances and hushed whispers casted his way. Of course… since he wasn’t with his father, they’re not hiding anymore. He scoffed in amusement at the fact that when he was with the al Ghuls, he was regarded the exact same way just for different reasons. As an al Ghul, walking through the temple walls of The League, he was feared with respect for who he was and what he was raised to do. As a Wayne, walking through the ballroom of The Wayne Manor, he was feared with contempt for who he was and what he was capable of doing.

“You look like you just came back from being with a woman.”

Damian furrowed his brows at the sentence and turned to the source, surprised and perplexed to see a young female, around his age or a year older, with blonde locks cascading in soft waves down her slender shoulders. Her brown eyes twinkled up at him in light mirth. She pointed to his disheveled hair. “Must have been good.”

Damian frowned. He was too busy trying to get away from Jason that he forgot to fix himself. He ran a hand through his ebony locks once, smoothening it down. “All decent and handsome,” she gave a comical nod. Damian raised a brow at the stranger, who took this cue to introduce herself.

“Cissie King-Jones,” she said with a wide smile, purposely giving her nickname as she gauged he was the type to call an individual by whatever they first introduced themselves as.

“Damian Wayne,” he returned properly yet impersonally.

She chuckled. “I don’t think there’s a soul in this room that doesn’t know you. I mean, you just walked from one end to here, and everyone practically had their eyes on you.” She then glanced around the room. “ _Still_ have their eyes on you.”

Damian kept quiet, continuing to question the fact that someone among this crowd approached him, and also caught off guard by her forward and brazen nature. “Is there something you need?”

He watched Cissie’s smile widen further. “Yes,” she replied. He noted her voice had a melodic tone to it. “But you’re looking for your old man, right?” Damian briefly wondered on her unseemly description of Bruce and how she knew that he was looking for him. “He’s with mine,” she said and then corrected, “well, my guardian to be exact.”

“And you left them to look for me,” he filled in the blanks as to why she was currently talking to him.

Her pearly whites showed as she spoke, “Tim did say you were smart.”

That got Damian to look at her skeptically. “ _Drake_ said that?”

Cissie brought a hand to her chin, thoughtfully. “Not in those exact words, but I knew what he meant when he said, ‘He’s a smartass, that’s for sure.’”

Damian was having a hard time keeping up with the girl before him. “Who are you?”

“Cissie King-Jones,” she repeated her name, undeterred by the rudeness of his question or his signature hard expression. The wide smile she held was throwing him off. “Ward of Oliver Queen.”

CEO of Queen Industries, reigning company in Star City and an affiliate to Wayne Enterprises. Damian has never met the businessman before, but he heard from Alfred that he and his father are friends or close acquaintances. The young Wayne let his eyes roam over Cissie, assessing her from head to toe. Catching his gaze, she smiled and placed her hands on her hips, tilting her head. “What? Don’t I look like a Queen?”

Damian noted the double entendre of her sentence and the hint of teasing in her sing-song tone. He really didn’t know how to handle overly social people and preferred not to be around them if he could help it. Dealing with his brothers was enough. Shaking his head in exasperation, he prompted, “You said you needed something?”

Maintaining her smile, Cissie extended her hand, “Damian Wayne, I would like you to be my trainer.”

* * *

It was the final ten minutes of her shift, which ends thirty minutes before the whole event. Even if she had apologized, the guilt of slapping Damian earlier was eating at her. Since returning back to work, with great difficulty due to getting lost within the maze of the Wayne estate, her eyes kept drifting to the youngest heir, zoning in on his cheek. However rude mouth he may be, he did nothing but help her. With the cold object in hand, she wanted to apologize once more before she left. If she didn’t do it now, she didn’t think she would be able to later. Because after tonight, she wanted nothing to do with him.

Since returning to the gala, Raven noticed that the young Wayne has not been alone for a full five minutes before he was approached by someone else. At the moment, he was with his father, a blond young woman, and an older gentleman. Even if she weren’t working as a server, she didn’t think she could interrupt their conversation. She sighed and went into the kitchens to end her shift.

…

…

…

Come Monday afternoon, Raven sat cross-legged under her usual tree, nibbling a sandwich she had bought from the cafeteria. Her eyes ran back and forth over the text in her lap when a wad of cash fell in her lap.

“Thanks for covering for me. If it weren’t for you, Dad wouldn’t have let me go to the party,” Traci, whose family runs a hospitality and service business, stated as she joined Raven under the tree. “How was it?”

“Wayne functions are out of the question,” she replied, placing the money in her bag.

That surprised Traci. Aside from Traci preferring to play than work, the pig-tails haired girl had asked Raven to cover her, knowing her friend needed the money and that she was friends with Dick Grayson. Since the oldest Wayne was finally back in Gotham after two years, she thought her friend would be ecstatic to catch up with the rich, handsome bachelor.

“That bad?”

Raven shook her head, not wanting to dwell on it. “How was the party?”

Traci narrowed her eyes at the friend she made during her second year of college. Despite knowing her for almost three years, Raven was still as much of an enigma when she first met her. Raven will only let you in when and if she wants to. “If it’s anything, I got scolded by Zach and Gar for preventing you from attending the party.”

Closing her textbook, Raven spoke, “Gar knows I don’t attend parties.”

Traci remembered Gar mentioning something about that but didn’t go in detail. “He always invites you, though.”

“And I always say no," Raven replied.

If Traci remembered through the alcohol-influenced memories, Gar specifically said that he _can’t_ go into detail because something about ‘Dick threatening’. She questioned her memories. Traci didn’t know the oldest Wayne brother, but _Dick threatening people?_ That couldn’t be right. Well, she had been mildly inebriated. Still, Traci eyed her friend, curiosity eating at her. “Have you and Dick _ever_ dated?”

Raven was taken aback by the question. How is it that people are questioning her relationship with Dick when she hasn’t even spent ten minutes with him? “No,” she answered. “We’re just friends. Always have been.”

Traci hummed thoughtfully. “Dating the oldest Wayne heir would be troublesome.”

Raven released a light laugh at the statement, silently agreeing. At that moment, a chorus of greetings came from the fountain. Both Raven and Traci turned their attention to the scene to see Jason, Roy, and Connor intermingle with the student body, particularly the females, many students cheering for their upcoming game.

“Make that ‘dating _any_ Wayne heir would be troublesome’,” Traci rectified as Jason, cocky grin displayed, placed an arm on a female student and flirted audaciously.

Raven didn’t know Jason like she did Dick, but she was aware that the second Wayne brother, although a year younger than Dick, had taken a break before starting college. Even if he started two years after Dick, Jason had momentarily been under Dick’s shadow until he became the baseball captain three years ago, led the team to be undefeated, and made the once dead sport interesting again.

Raven had to agree with her friend once again, recalling the numerous times she had witnessed how immensely popular the Wayne brothers were. She wasn’t sure if the rumors about a fanclub for the Wayne boys were true, but she could foresee a great number of devastated hearts if any of the brothers ever settled. She remembered a few years ago, the media had announced Bruce Wayne was seeing someone and _that_ caused chaos. What more for his sons and the young hearts across the city?

“I already know your answer, but if _I_ had to choose a favorite Wayne, I’d choose Tim,” Traci mindlessly continued to comment as they observed more members of the baseball team join the three seniors.

Raven took her eyes off the baseball team members and turned to regard the girl she met in her general education art class three years ago. “Why?” she asked, her psychology inquisitiveness piqued. Basing off the many people around her, Dick and Jason had a stronger reputation with the female population.

Born in the same year as Tim, Raven had shared a few classes with the third brother during her first year of college but hardly talked long enough to be considered a conversation nor did they share any personal tidbits to get to know one another. The one thing Tim had that set him apart from his brothers was probably his strong sense of right and wrong, which she had come to learn during their shared political science class two years ago. During a class discussion that soon turned into a debate, Tim adamantly argued about the necessity of certain laws. From that alone, Raven had sense that Tim had more of a black and white view of the world compared to her gray one.

“He’s more caring,” Traci shrugged her answer after thinking for a moment. “But I might be bias just because we had a class together.” Raven gave a soft snort at Traci’s reasoning. Ever since Raven told her of ‘personal bias’, the history major has been using it often in their conversations. Traci looked at Raven. “And just for confirmation, yours is Dick Grayson, right? Biasedly and unbiasedly?”

Although she knew what Traci meant by the phrasing of her question, Raven had to point out, “Any ‘favorite’ choice involves biased thought. There’s no such thing as an unbiased favorite.” The pig-tail girl rolled her eyes causing Raven to smile. “Yes,” she answered, nonetheless. “If I had to choose, I would easily choose him.”

Traci had always wanted to know how their friendship came to be since they were different ages. “How did you two meet?”

“The same place I met Gar,” Raven started. “I attended Titans Summer Camp for Teens.”

That tidbit completely surprised Traci. “You? At Titans!?”

Raven understood the flabbergasted expression Traci donned. If she were Traci, she would have been just as surprised. Titans was one of the highest rated summer programs across the nation. Raven chose her words carefully as she continued, purposefully leaving out facts, such as how she was forced to go. “At Titans, I met Gar. And you met Jaime Reyes at one of Gar’s parties.” The subtle widening of her friend’s eyes didn’t go unnoticed by the young psych major. “That’s where Gar and Jaime became friends. Terra also attended one summer. Quite a few students here have attended, actually.” To Raven, attending Titans wasn’t a big deal, but it was interesting to see Traci’s rapt attention.

“And the oldest brother was one of them?”

Raven nodded. “Dick was our camp counselor. We did a lot of charity work. It was surprisingly fun, especially whenever Gar got in trouble for pulling pranks,” she lightly chuckled, fond memories resurfacing. “I went back two more years, and so did Gar,” she finished.

“So, you’re a Titan,” Traci mused and then added, “No wonder you tolerate green-haired boy.” Raven let out a light laugh.

Another round of noise was made, and both girls turned their heads to see the baseball team leaving with the student body giving them encouraging praises. “Are you going to the game this weekend?” Traci asked even though she already knew Raven’s answer. She was surprised when she received the opposite.

“I’ll need to for one of my term papers,” Raven answered, placing all her belongings in her bag after realizing the time.

Noticing the action, Traci voiced, “Class?”

“No, errand. Need to head to the post office,” Raven said, standing.

Traci stood as well, dusting her pants of clinging grass. “Thanks again for Friday.”

“No problem. You help me out more than I help you, to be honest. Just no more—”

“Wayne functions,” Traci finished with a roll of the eyes. “Got it.” Something catching her attention behind Raven, Traci arched a brow, a knowing smile gracing her face. “You say that, but I think your camp counselor wants to talk to you.”

Eyes widening, Raven looked behind her to see Dick talking to Wally, occasionally glancing her way.

“I’ll be going now. See ya, Raven,” Traci said and left before Raven could protest.

Raven expected Dick to carry out his promise to see her. She just didn’t expect it so soon. Dick and Wally parting, Raven took a deep breath, readying her heart and approached the criminal justice grad student, stopping two feet away from him. “Dick,” she greeted.

“Raven,” he returned with his usual smile, distinguished smile lines showing.

Raven immediately averted her gaze when she felt the tell-tale sign of the slight skip of her heart at his smile. Has his effect always been this strong on her? A minute hasn’t even passed that she wondered how did she ever manage to talk to him before? She took a second to quickly meditate.

At her quietness, Dick dropped his smile, the memories of three years ago coming to mind. He thought they got over that hurdle. “Raven?”

Hearing the concern in his voice and noticing he was about to take a step closer, Raven forced a smile. “I need to head to the—”

“Post office?” he finished for her with a knowing look. He answered her questioning gaze, “It’s the third Monday.”

Remembering that he had accompanied her a few times before he graduated, she nodded and started walking towards the west wing of the campus with Dick naturally falling in step with her. Maybe walking and focusing on her errand will help shift her thoughts to not be entirely on Dick and how her body’s ions seem to gravitate towards him.

“Still not going to tell me who you’re writing those love letters to?”

“If I didn’t tell you then, what makes you think I’ll tell you now?”

Dick frowned and brought a hand to his chest as if nursing the ache her words had caused, and Raven shook her head, a bit amused. “You know,” he began a bit teasingly, “ _I_ never even got a letter from you for the two years I’ve been away.”

She didn’t bite his bait. “I don’t see how that is necessary when technology is so far advanced.” Since that incident five years ago, Raven would not give into his playful banter no matter how much he had tried. Her cold responses never stopped him from continuing to try, though.

“Says the person on her way to deliver a letter now,” Dick replied and momentarily quickened his step to open the door to the post office. Raven gave a small smile in thanks and passed through. “So, that means the mysterious person you’re sending letters to lives in a place where technology is limited,” he inferred.

Raven briefly glanced at him to see his smile widen and wondered if all members of the Wayne family are cocky when they solve puzzles or try to figure out people’s secrets. “Or I could be dealing drugs and didn’t want to leave a digital footprint,” she retorted, trying her best to ignore the slow subtle heat erupting within her. _Seriously_ , Raven internally groaned in annoyance. She remembered she could hold conversations with Dick long enough to not feel so bothered. Why was she reacting so quickly now?

Dick arched a brow, knowing she purposely said that because of his occupation. “I’ve known you for seven years, Rae. Either I don’t know you as well as I’d like to think I do, or you manage to outsmart me all these years with well kept secrets if that were true.”

Raven couldn’t help but noticed the irony of his sentence as she strode to the side of the office, placing her bag on the counter to take out the letter their conversation revolved around. Dick caught the wad of money Traci had given Raven earlier. Surprised, he picked it up and creased his brows at her. “Alright, I demand to know who your contacts are.”

Raven couldn’t help but let out a laugh at the seemingly incriminating evidence to her statement. Maybe it was because talking to Traci about her time at Titans had invoked old, fond memories that she found herself saying, against her better judgment, “I missed you.”

At her laugh, Dick smiled and savored the melody of it, perfectly knowing how she rarely lets such a pleasant sound escape her lips. And when she spoke those three words, his face softened. Seven years ago, when a girl with shoulder-length, black-as-night hair had arrived at Titans with an unbothered look, Dick would have never expected that fourteen-year-old would come to mean so much to him. A few times, when Dick was troubled and talking to Wally wasn’t enough, he would seek Raven for clarity. Having conversations with Raven provided an introspect that no one else could. Discarding her money back in her bag, he pulled her in for a hug, arms surrounding her small frame tightly. “I missed you.”

At the feel of his hard body around her, Raven squeezed her eyes shut, her mind now in chaotic state of alarm as it fought fiercely against the carnal instinct her body roared with. _Focus, Raven!_ She placed her hands on his chest, quickly noting how her body even found delight in that contact. Turning them into fists, she whispered, “Dick.”

“Sorry,” he said with a sincere smile and let her go, knowing she didn’t like her personal space invaded too much. “Physical touch still too much?”

 _Physical touch with you_ , she internally corrected as she subtly tightened her fists, nails digging in her palms as an effort to will her blood to calm. As if it was instinctive, Raven questioned, “How’s Kori?” and then realization dawned on her.

When Kori’s name left Raven’s lips, she realized how she had managed to be around Dick despite her body reacting to him. Raven was always consciously aware that Dick and Kori were together. Other than the first time Raven had her first episode, she was able to not lose complete focus talking to Dick because Kori was always in the picture. If Kori wasn’t there physically, she would be there in conversation, either initiated by Dick or her, usually the former. And that was enough to not feel the need to jump Dick each and every time because her conscience would not allow her to act upon such physical desires since she didn’t want to hurt Kori.

She was surprised to not hear him mention her yet, remembering how smitten he was with her. Before he and Kori had started dating, during her second year at camp, all he could talk about was her. Their relationship was sweet and strong and enviable to anyone looking for even a semblance of the same thing. Dick’s love for Kori and vice versa acted like a water spray to the desire building within her. Every time she felt herself losing control, she would purposely bring Kori up in conversation, and it would work.

Raven watched as he shook his head, smiling solemnly. “We’re no longer together.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think what I really like about Damian and Raven is their contrast in logic versus emotion. I find that really neat.  
> Thank you to all who are reading this right now.


	3. The Social Exchange

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Social life entails the mutual exchange of desirable rewards with others, a process called social exchange” (Miller, 2012).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm guessing this is the chapter people expected to read. I hope it doesn't disappoint.

Damian looked over the student requests and proposals for the upcoming school events he was obligated to read due to his title as student government president. He rubbed his eyes with his forefinger and thumb and cursed his brothers for putting his name in as a candidate. Born leader of The League and blood son to the greatest business mogul in the country was now reduced to paperwork. Though, he supposed it wasn’t too far from what his father does.

Jason’s howl of laughter the instant they had said he won represented the bizarreness of the situation. If he gained anything positive about being forced into this position, it was seeing Tim’s shocked face. In the end, however, he was the one sitting in the student government chair, forced to read frivolous ideas from individuals on the cusp of their adolescent life, trying to make most of their waning youthful freedom while prepping for their future contribution to society.

“Djinn,” Damian called the secretary. “Send this proposal back to the Lit Alliance club and tell them they need to rewrite their benefits. If they’re English majors, why does their proposal look like it’s written by a middle school student?” he muttered, annoyed.

Djinn stood from her seat, the gold bangles on her wrists and ankles jingling and creating an enchanting chime every time she moved. She approached Damian, retrieving the papers he held out to her. “If they ask why, I’ll be sure to relay your exact words,” she said with the upturn of her lips, finding his attitude entertaining.

“If it gets them to write like actual college students,” he replied, uncaringly.

“Geez, Wayne,” Zachary voiced, looking up from the approved funding requests on his desk, “You’re harsher than the professors here.”

“He’s not wrong, though,” Djinn countered, leaning back on Damian’s desk, legs crossed. “And he wasn’t voted for his people skills. Skye was.”

At the mention of her name, the public relations officer, who was currently photocopying flyers, turned around and gave a toothy grin. Zachary laughed at the blonde’s cuteness, her lavender jacket a bleak effort in brightening the room compared to her vibrant smile. “True,” he agreed but noticed Damian wasn’t even paying any attention to their conversation about his lack of social eloquence as the latter had his eyes on his phone.

Damian clenched his fist as he read the article the _Gotham Gazette_ recently published online:

_“Is Gotham’s current low crime-rate related to the death of ‘The Demon’s Head’?”_

_It has been four years since the death of Ra’s al Ghul, the once_ capo di tutti i capi _(“boss of all bosses”) and leader of the al Ghul mafia family, commonly referred to as The League of Shadows or simply The League. According to recent data released by the Gotham City Police Department, crime has gone down 12%. The city has not seen a double-digit decline in over fifty years. Looking at the graph, the decline starts four years ago, around the time the head of The League was assassinated when he was out dining with his daughter and grandson at a restaurant the family owned. The restaurant has since shut down following the incident as with many al Ghul-owned establishments around Gotham, and while a few establishments remain, one has to question if The League is still operating in Gotham. Although we do not know the answer to that, we do know the current whereabouts of the heir to The League._

_Damian al Ghul, grandson of the former boss of The League, has recently made his second public appearance this past weekend at a charity gala hosted by Wayne Enterprises. Bruce Wayne has introduced the mafia heir as his ward with many business partners questioning his goals. “Son or not, what is Bruce thinking of taking in an al Ghul?” asks one individual who wishes to remain anonymous. “I fear Wayne Enterprises will take a turn for the worst if Bruce makes the wrong choice,” says another individual who also wishes to remain anonymous. These are valid concerns, especially considering the recently released crime data._

_With The League’s current silence and Gotham’s crime-rate declining, the future of Gotham finally looks promising. We do not want to imagine what would happen when an al Ghul takes hold of Wayne Enterprises. Gotham only hopes that Mr. Wayne makes a wise choice on who he chooses to lead his company after he retires. Although we may not have a say, our vote goes to either Richard Grayson or Timothy Drake, both who have assisted the GCPD on several occasions. Gotham City finally lost one al Ghul leader and has no need of another one._

The grip around his phone tightened. Everything about the article pissed him off. It was one thing to blame all criminal activities on his grandfather, but to praise his death when they didn’t even understand his goals or ideals made him furious. His grandfather had more compassion towards the world than any human walking the streets of Gotham. The only reason the numbers went down was because The Brotherhood, The Church of Blood, and the H.I.V.E. are currently too busy fighting amongst themselves to determine who should be the next _capo di tutti i capi_ with the rights to operate in Gotham while The League falls back to determine who betrayed his family. The Gotham Police wasn’t going to report the mafia clans killing each other; they kept those numbers stored separately in their database. And then you have the rest of the article…

Damian stood abruptly, startling everyone in the room. Surprised eyes stayed on him as he grabbed his jacket and exited the office. How can he finish his work when he was too riled up to even give a shit? Shrugging his jacket on, he decided on heading to the gym to relieve some tension when his phone rang. Damian stared at the unknown number, pausing in his stride. He slid the accept button, brought the device to his ear, and waited. When nothing but silence reached his ears, Damian found concern slowly lacing its way through the other numerous emotions currently occupying his being.

“Where are you?”

A location followed by a soft apology was heard before the call ended. Pocketing his phone, Damian shifted his feet and headed towards the spoken destination.

Raven always compared her sanity to a rope, specifically her sanity in relation to Dick Grayson. Every time she was with him, a thread of the rope would snap, be it from a mere action he did, his attractive scent, or simply by looking at him. With every snap, she worked quickly to tie the thread back together to make the rope whole again. Other than the first time, throughout the last five years, the rope, albeit with many frays and knots, had never completely broke in two in front of him. And yet, hearing that combination of words caused all threads of the rope to snap, and Raven was currently struggling to tie that last thread back together.

She quickly averted her gaze from Dick’s melancholic eyes, feeling the desire for the man beside her grow tenfold as he told her of his failed relationship with Kori. Her entire being was at conflict with each other, her superego battling against her id and ego. Her heart wanted to reach out to him and comfort his still obvious hurt as any friend would, but the innate part of her, the primitive instinctual part, screamed out to comfort him in an entirely salacious way. It was as if knowing he was no longer with Kori caused all hell to break loose within her. She gripped the counter, knuckles white, to prevent herself from turning to him and caress his cheek.

Seeing this, Dick grew worried. “Raven?” he asked and moved to place a hand on her shoulder only to have her suddenly evade him.

Raven could just imagine the look on his face from stepping away from him. She was surprised that she was able to even manage doing that, but she knew that if he touched her, then her struggling attempt to keep her sanity will fall to pieces. “I’m fine,” she breathed out, hoping to ease the hurt she knew she inflicted from avoiding his touch. “Just…um…” she tried to think of an excuse that wouldn’t have him interrogating her any further, “cramps…?” she gave. It was a few seconds before she finally heard him.

“Oh… Do you need water or… something?” he offered.

 _Azarath_ , she forgot how sweet he can be. She couldn’t stay around him any longer. Her grip on the broken thread was slipping. Raven shook her head in response and started throwing her belongings back in her bag, zipping it up in a hurried and clumsy fashion. “I need to go,” she quickly spoke and exited the post office, not glancing back at him or waiting for a response. Heart aching in utmost frustration and yearning, she searched her phone for the most recently stored contact.

_“Raven.”_

_Hearing her name made her pause in her stride, but hearing the owner of the voice made her heart skip a beat. Wasn’t he occupied in a conversation before she left the ballroom just a couple of minutes ago? She also noted it was the first time he ever said her name after having conversed three times now._

_She turned to regard the person she had slapped roughly an hour ago, her eyes briefly falling on his cheek highlighted by the full moon. Standing under the clear night sky just outside the Wayne manor, she waited for him to continue._

_“I…,” Damian shoved his hands in pockets, expression hard yet thoughtful, “I have come to realize how inconsiderate I was earlier, and I want to apologize for my discourtesy.” A quick heat rushed through her as his eyes focused directly on hers. Since she first locked eyes with him, she always found the deep green of his irises captivating. “My apologies.”_

_Raven felt her heart skip another beat at the thought that Damian had left a conversation with important businesspeople just to come after her to apologize, even after the fact that she was the one that had slapped him. And if he truly did just that, Raven wondered how much she and the whole world got Damian Wayne incredibly wrong. Remembering she still had the ice pack in her hands, she took a step closer to him, glad that she oddly didn’t throw it away since she was just on her way home._

_Raven saw him narrow his eyes as she approached him. She wasn’t sure what compelled her. It might be due to the sincerity of his apology, but instead of offering him the slightly melted bag of ice, she brought the cold bag to his cheek and felt the clench of his jaw, due to the coldness or the sudden action, she didn’t know. “I still shouldn’t have slapped you. I’m sorry.”_

_Damian observed the woman who stood more than a foot shorter than him, not knowing what to make of the current feeling coursing through him. He felt uncomfortable yet oddly warm, which bothered him greatly. Feeling his heart getting increasingly uneasy, he removed her hand from his cheek. “It’s not like it hurt,” he muttered, turning his face from her._

_Thinking that she might have overstepped her boundaries when she, too, disliked people entering her personal space, she apologized._

_He snapped his head back to her, frowning. “Is that all you can say?”_

_Taken aback by the sharp way he spoke, she started to say something but then closed her mouth, realizing that three out of the last five sentences she said to him were all “I’m sorry.” She pressed her lips together, now not sure what to speak._

_Noting he now made her apprehensive, he sighed. “Do you have your phone on you?”_

_She blinked at the unexpected question. “Yes.”_

_Taking his hand out of his pocket, he extended it out to her. Although she wordlessly questioned his motives, she unlocked her phone and placed it in his hands._

_“I do not know of your relationship with Grayson nor do I completely understand what you are going through,” Raven heard him say as she watched him swipe and tap on her phone, “But it is apparent that you are at an impasse in your current situation.” Handing her phone back to her, he said, “If you find yourself in another predicament, I can at least offer my assistance where Grayson cannot… should you seek it.”_

_A rush of heat passed through her as she understood what his words meant. She stared at his number in her phone, confused._

_“Well…” she heard him bid in parting, the sound of feet shifting on gravel following after._

_“Why?” she voiced before he was able to take a step back to the manor. She lifted her eyes to look at him, wanting to catch any sign that would give light to her confusion._

_He had his gaze casted downward, jaw tight as usual, glaring pensively at the gravel that decorated the exterior landscape. It was a while before he finally said something. “I honestly don’t know,” he replied before returning back to the gala._

Damian entered the library, signed-in, and proceeded up the stairs to the third floor. The biological son of Gotham’s reputable magnate will forever question what possessed him to propose such thing. Several reasons have entered his mind, such as how he might attribute it to the perturbed feeling he had after upsetting her and wanted to ease it by proffering his aid. Or how the arresting look of her violet eyes seemed to wish for help and something told him that she was too stubborn and prideful to voice it, so he took it upon himself to answer her mute plea for her.

The most nagging reason, however, might go back to the first day he met her, when he felt the slickness of her womanly desire around his fingers and the primal part of him had basked in the feeling. He could recall how his erection ached as he thrusted his fingers inside her, her vaginal juices almost coating his entire hand. But it wasn’t exactly the act of it that might have compelled him to extend such a proposition rather than how he felt afterwards. Aside from the raging erection she had left him with, the stress and turmoil of emotions plaguing his mind at the time had quieted.

The whole reason Damian had sought a place to be alone was so that he could calm the anger he was feeling towards his father’s refusal to let him look for his mother, and since the gym had been occupied by a class during that time, he had looked for a place where he could best achieve absolute silence and the conference rooms of the library were lined with soundproof panels. After the incident with her, Damian couldn’t help but noticed that his anger had dissipated. Maybe it was because she had provided an opportune distraction, like she had also done the night of the gala, that he saved his number on her phone.

Damian opened the door to the second conference room and stepped inside. He almost expected to see her in the same position on the floor but found her hunched over the conference table instead. Her head was bowed, black tresses falling to the table, dark skinny jeans unbuttoned and unzipped with her left hand flat on the surface as support and her right hand buried in her dark purple lacy underwear as she tried to pleasure herself. The titillating image made his throat run dry and the blood rush to his cock.

At the soft click of the lock, she stilled, and he watched mesmerized as she flipped her hair to one side to look at him, teeth worrying her bottom lip. Her eyes were completely glazed over with nothing but lust and frustration. She’s been gone for a while now.

Just the sight of Damian made her body burn further with desire, and when he came to stand behind her and she felt his hands on her waist, her blood sang with contentment. Automatically, she leaned back to him but was stilled with the firm grip of his hands.

Damian was surprised to hear her whimper when he prevented her from pressing her ass to his groin. What surprised him more, however, was that she tried again, and she released another frustrated whimper when he once again barred her. Since entering the room, Damian felt his blood heat but knowing how needy she was caused the temperature in his veins to heighten.

With her jeans too tight to allow him to touch her, he nudged her foot with his. “Close your legs,” he instructed. She followed obediently, and he hooked his thumbs in her jeans and began dragging it down her slender and smooth legs. He could feel her heat as he knelt behind her, making his cock twitch involuntarily.

If Damian shifted his eyes a few millimeters up, he would be granted with a direct view of her most intimate parts obstructed only by the dark lacy fabric. Her scent permeated his senses, and he found there was nothing else like it in the world. It was a mixture of something earthy and subtly sweet with a hint of something wholly unique to her that attracted everything male in him. If he wasn’t fully erect before, he was now, and Damian almost felt himself lean upward to bury his nose within her and smell her directly. He stood back up and took in a deep breath.

Impatient that he still hasn’t touched her, Raven completely removed her jeans and turned to face him, her hair whipping around her and causing Damian to reflexively lean back. She scowled up at him. “I called you for a reason.”

Damian arched an observative brow. Despite being driven by her lustful state, her mind is cognizant enough to express coherent sentences. So, she’s mindful of her actions but just can’t control them. As he thought that, Raven reached for the button of his jeans, tugging him forward to her.

Almost losing his footing, he immediately grabbed hold of her hands. “No.”

She looked as if she was just denied a toy, half glaring and half pouting at him. Damian almost found her cute, especially given the fact that it was his cock that he had denied her to cause such reaction, but when he thought about it, it wasn’t exactly his cock she wanted in the first place but his brother’s.

“Then why are you here?”

He scoffed, still questioning the same thing even though he came up with a few plausible reasons. With her hands still within his grasp, he moved their hands to the table behind her, causing her body to flush against his. He felt her purr at the contact. “I said I’ll offer my assistance where Grayson cannot,” he assured her, and she rubbed herself against him, pleased with his promise, breasts pushing against his chest and her body inadvertently grazing his erection. He closed his eyes, focusing on suppressing a groan.

He released her hands, moving them back to her waist and hoisted her onto the table. Immediately, she wound her legs around his midsection and pulled him to her, strained and hard meeting wet and eager through layers of fabric. Damian gritted his teeth when his hips impulsively responded to her wetness and rocked into her. A melodic moan managed to escape her lips.

 _Dammit_ , he cursed at himself and gripped her thighs to release him. “No,” he repeated more sternly.

She whined when he pried her legs apart and stepped back. “I need…” Her body was burning, her carnal core aching with unyielding want. It was unbearable. She needed something, anything. She slipped her hand into her underwear, the action pulling his attention, and he saw the damp fabric move with her fingers as she began to rub herself. Unconsciously, he wetted his lips at the sight, unable to look away this time.

As he watched her for a minute, he witnessed what she meant by how she was unable to satiate her lust by touching herself. He noticed she wasn’t reacting to her ministrations at all, her look of frustration only growing. Her body demanded a man’s touch.

Sighing, he replaced her hand with his and heard her release a content sigh immediately upon contact. He stroked a single finger along her slick folds and she responded with a low hum. And when his thumb grazed over her already swollen clit, her body twitched.

“Please,” she begged, grinding into his hand, trying to gain more friction, more substance.

He granted her request, inserting two digits into her moist cavern, and thrusted his fingers in an even pace, caressing and spreading her walls. He watched her bring her hands to her mouth, muffling her moans. When he sped his thrusting, adding a third finger, she couldn’t help but to cry out, “Ah~”

Damian clenched his jaw, ignoring the tightness in his jeans, as he focused on getting her off. There was no need for anything else, unnecessary touches, unnecessary kisses, and neither of them wanted it either. He swiped his thumb over her clit, feeling her body shudder in response. The clenching of her walls told him she was close. He continued rubbing her furiously, switching between swift, circular motions and up and down strokes.

Her breathing came out in short bursts, the urge building to new heights. Through her breaths, Damian heard something causing him to cease all action.

She immediately glowered and looked back at him through panted breaths, confused and annoyed that he stopped. She was almost there!

As he stared at her with her cheeks deeply colored, chest heaving, her dark blue t-shirt all wrinkled, and legs spread with his fingers still inside her and thumb pressed against her sensitive nub, he, too, had to wonder why he had stilled. He had only the intention of touching her, repeating the last time they were in that room, but that didn’t seem likely now. Something stirred within him, and he found himself answering to it.

He pulled back his hand, not without hearing her slight whimper from the loss of contact, and pushed gently on her shoulder, easing her to lie back on the table. She watched him kneel down and felt heated puffs of breath along her fabric-covered, soaked core.

Damian couldn’t deny the enticing view before him as she spread herself both willingly and unwillingly for him. He moved her underwear to the side and his heart pounded at the glistening sight in front of him. He saw her clenching in anticipation, clit thoroughly engorged, and he had to ignore everything in him that told him to bury his cock inside her.

Instead, he leaned forward and dragged his tongue from her opening up to her clit in one slow lick, and he found that she tasted exactly as she smelled. She bucked against him, a muffled melodious moan reaching his ears. He then inserted his tongue into her wet cavern and, a second later, had to press a hand to her stomach to keep her from writhing wildly.

She bit down on her lip as he continued to thrust his tongue in her, the jolting sensations spreading throughout her body and gathering at her center both satisfying and starving her at the same time. The coil of need in her center twisted tightly. She wanted more. She needed more. And when he switched his mouth with his fingers and went to suck on her clit, feeling his tongue lick her in every direction, she had to bite down on her hand to keep from crying out, hips convulsing violently as she came.

Damian held her thighs and continued to suck and lick at her gently until she came down from her high. Once he felt that she was calm, he retracted his head and stood up, momentarily eyeing his work before shifting his eyes to her face. She laid on the table, sprawled and spent, a few strands of her dark locks matted to her face from a light sheen of sweat that covered her forehead. Violet hooded eyes looked back at him as she tried to regulate her breathing. Damian had never described anything beautiful but that word strangely couldn’t leave his mind as he stared back at her.

“Are you back?”

Raven gave a light scoff at the question but nodded. “Yeah.”

“Good.” He nodded in return as though he just finished a chore. He then used the back of his right hand to wipe his mouth.

The action made Raven blush fiercely when she thought of what he was wiping off. She then saw him grit his teeth, his expression harder than ever, before sharply turning away from her. In a mixture of unease and concern, she propped herself up on her elbows to observe him, his back facing her as he rested an arm on the wall in front of him. The sound of a zipper filled the room before an exhale of a shaky breath, and a light heat enveloped her cheeks as she wondered if he would relieve himself. But as she continued to quietly observe him, she saw him clench and unclench his fist several times as if trying to rid his arousal away by sheer will.

The constraint of his jeans was unbearable that Damian was forced to free his arousal just to ease the discomfort, the cold air hitting his shaft. Eyes shut tight, he leaned to rest his forehead on his arm, every muscle in his body taut. Although the young heir has woken up to many morning woods, a cold shower had always worked as a remedy. Never had he needed to touch himself, but the young trained mafia heir was finding no other alternative as a shower was nowhere in sight and thinking it down was proving to be difficult, especially with a half-naked female behind him. And there was no way he could walk across the campus to the gym with a raging erection. But how could he do such a thing so inappropriate and in front of someone else?

He suddenly felt a presence behind him. Damian creased his brows, seeing her hands appear around his waist and stopping inches away from his arousal. His cock twitched while his heart skipped a beat at the proximity of her hands around him. “What are you doing?”

Raven paused, uncertain of how to respond. She didn’t know where she was getting her courage, but as she watched him struggle internally, she found herself wanting to lend a hand as he did with her. She also got the sense that Damian Wayne wasn’t the type to masturbate, making her think to a year ago and how he probably stayed in the conference room until his arousal dissipated. “A social exchange?” she offered, the psychology theory first coming to mind.

Damian moved his head slightly as if to look at her over his shoulder. “What?”

“A cost and benefit take on social interactions. I’m increasing your profits in our exchange,” she explained briefly, returning a logical explanation as he did three nights ago. She then whispered to his back, “I won’t look,” as if that was the reason that made him hesitate.

Damian wanted to reject her, to tell her that he didn’t need to do such a thing nor did he need the assistance as she did, but the words weren’t coming out. And something dark deep inside him, the same strange urge from before that had him eat her out, reveled in the idea of her, in particular, touching him, especially when he thought of what she said before.

Raven took his silence as a sign to proceed.

All she did was wrap her hands around him, but the gratification the warmth of her hands sent throughout his body caused him to take in a sharp breath. _Fuck_ , he thought as his hips instinctively jerked into her hands and, in the process, shifted Raven to completely lean into him, breasts pushed up against his back. He brought both forearms to lean on the wall and tightened his fists as he fought the instinctual response to fuck her hands.

She flushed at the velvety feel of him. He was incredibly hard and hot and eager for release. With no prior experience, Raven unsurely slid her enclosed hands along his heated shaft. She didn’t know much about the biological responses of the male anatomy but she assumed the slight choked groan was a positive indicator that he took pleasure in what she was doing. Feeling him twitch in her palms, she automatically tightened her hold, hearing him hiss in reaction.

“Sorry,” she apologized and was about to loosen her grip when his hand caught her wrist. She couldn’t see him to gauge his face for reactions if she had done something wrong. Several seconds passed and he hasn’t said anything either. A mess of anxious thoughts started to convolute her mind. Eventually, without a word, he released her wrist, and a subtle heat blossomed in her chest when she realized he wanted her to continue with the same amount of pressure.

And so, with her firm hold, she stroked him.

She slid her hands up and down his length at an even yet awkward pace. Feeling a bead of liquid at his tip, she used her left thumb to swipe at it, spreading it around his head and down him. The muscles of his back stiffened against her as she used his precum to help ease her strokes. A couple of times, she felt his hips jerk, and she read the action that he wanted her to increase her pace. She obliged, keeping her left hand at his head, and, using her right, began stroking him faster. A deep groan rumbled within his chest.

With her arms around his waist and body practically flushed against his back, Raven became fully aware of how masculine and toned Damian Wayne was. The taut muscles of his back beckoned to rest her head against him. She leaned her forehead on the center of his shoulder blades, increasing her pace as much as she could. Never would she had thought that she would ever be in such a situation with Damian Wayne of all people, the person who most of Gotham decries his existence.

His breathing became ragged, his grunts more frequent. And after several more pumps, he came with a hard, strained groan. She froze, feeling him pulse hotly in her palms, and a warm wet substance covered her left hand. Her heart pounded against her chest as she thought of how she just helped the controversial son of Gotham’s most eminent entrepreneur ejaculate. She didn’t want to admit that a light sense of pride filled her at the thought. Raven waited for a minute or two before retracting her hands. However, his hands caught hers once again, preventing her from doing so.

“Don’t,” he scolded, making her forehead wrinkle with confusion. Wasn’t he done? But then she felt a soft fabric wipe at her fingertips, and Raven couldn’t help the skip of her heart. The entity that is Damian Wayne was full of surprises.

“Thank you,” she whispered to his back when he let go of her hands. She then turned around to give him some privacy and realized she needed to get dress as well.

After tucking himself back in and cleaning whatever mess he made, he turned around to see her button her jeans, eyes spotting her drenched underwear on the table. Catching his line of sight, Raven blushed for the umpteenth time and grabbed her undergarment before shoving it into her bag. She had a class soon, and there was no way she could wear it during.

Damian couldn’t stop the amused quirk of his lips. He crossed the room to throw the forest green handkerchief he used to clean themselves until she grabbed it midfall. “What are you doing?” he asked mortified, snatching the fabric back from her hands and feeling an uncomfortable heat crawl to his ears. She should know what it was covered with for fuck’s sakes.

“You can’t just throw it here,” she admonished, looking up at him.

“And why not?”

“Because,” she started, also feeling an embarrassed heat engulf her, “we don’t need to leave evidence.”

He arched a brow at what she said. “The room reeks of us already,” he retorted.

“Exactly,” she agreed. “If anybody used the room after us, they’ll get suspicious and check the sign-in sheets. We don’t need to leave evidence to confirm their suspicions.”

He fell quiet, acknowledging her arguments.

Aware that he didn’t come with anything to place his handkerchief in, she said, “Let me have it. I’ll wash it for you.” She held out her hand and questioned the slight look of confusion and disgust he gave her when it was his semen in the first place. She huffed in exasperation and stole the fabric from his hand. He watched as she placed it in the same compartment as her underwear.

Damian wondered why his life was entangling with such a strange person. How was it that Grayson was friends with her? And then thinking of his brother, he was compelled to ask just for affirmation’s sake, “Were you with him prior?” He didn’t think Grayson had classes on Mondays. If he was on campus, he must have come for the sole reason of seeing her.

Raven glanced back at him and something inside her warmed at how consistent Damian was in interrogating her. She’s come to expect it now. “Yes,” she answered. She was surprised, however, that he left it at that.

“Well... If there’s nothing else you need, I’ll be taking my leave.” He looked at her, waiting patiently.

“Oh… umm… no, there’s nothing,” she replied, his curt attitude of coming and going as he pleases both surprising and unsurprising. “Thanks… again.”

He nodded and grabbed the door handle, pausing only to say, “We’ll continue with this… social exchange for as long as you need. And I apologize if I did anything that was unwelcoming.”

She immediately knew he was referring to the cunnilingus he gave her. Raven didn’t know she could blush so much. “No, it’s okay,” she immediately amended. “You’re fine… you were… good.” She turned her head, blush deepening, and cursed herself for her lack of composure when he seemed perfectly fine during such an awkward exchange. It was silent for the longest time, but Raven refused to look at him. Not with the obvious red on her face. When she heard the click of the door, signifying that he finally left, the young psych major brought her hands to her face as if trying to hide from the world. She had to question why the aftermath of their encounters were so awkward after the acts they did. But when she thought about it, maybe it was for the better. Because something told her that if she started to feel comfortable, that was when she should worry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thank you to everyone who is currently reading this.


	4. The Rules of Friendship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Good friends can be counted on to play by the rules. We don’t often explicate our expectations about what it means to be a friend, but most of us nevertheless have rules for friendships that are shared cultural beliefs about what behaviors friends should (or should not) perform. … The rules dictate about what we should and shouldn’t do, but people don’t always follow the rules of friendship” (Miller, 2012).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A forewarning to the possible disappointment you might feel: Damian is hardly in this chapter. At first, he wasn't going to be in it at all, but I didn't want to release a chapter without him.

After getting a text from his friend, Wally headed to the corner café nearby the campus and easily spotted Dick sitting alone at a corner table. As usual, a few women of various ages would ogle him from afar, and the object of their affection blatantly ignored them. After ordering his drink, he approached his best friend and took the seat opposite him. “What’s up? I thought you would be with what’s-her-name?”

“Raven,” Dick automatically supplied for the millionth time. Wally knew her name but would sometimes not say it out of sheer pettiness towards him because he once confided in Raven first, and the redheaded runner refused to let it go. In reality, Dick knew Wally held no hostility towards the actual person and actually liked her dry humor. “I swear you act more like a jealous girlfriend than anything.”

Wally reached across the table and placed his hand lovingly over Dick’s before saying with a playful and pitying grin, “And yet I’m the only redhead around you.”

Dick narrowed his eyes at Wally making a jibe out his past relationships and a common attribute they shared. He turned his hand over to hold Wally’s with similar affection and attitude. “Not my fault you redheads are attracted to me,” he retorted.

Wally scoffed at the absurd statement and leaned back in his chair. “If I recall correctly, you asked Babs out first and couldn’t take your eyes off of Kori the first time you saw her. Not to mention your one-night stands with Yolanda and Kay.”

“Hey,” Dick defended. “Kay came onto to me, and Yolanda kissed me out of nowhere.”

Wally rolled his eyes at the pathetic retort and shook his head. “A lot of women approached you, but you only said yes to them. Not really helping your case, Buddy.”

Dick opened his mouth to counter but closed it, furrowing his brows in thought as the supporting evidence to counter his friend’s claim was absent. Wally laughed at Dick’s flustered look. “Shut up,” Dick said and threw his straw trash at Wally.

“To each their own,” Wally said after his laughter subsided and, with a nonchalant shrug, added, “I know us redheads are a rare commodity this side of the world.”

Still, Dick frowned as he contemplated on what Wally said. There was no denying the attractiveness of the fiery strands. He didn’t recall saying it as much to Kori, but he had said it numerous times to Babs about how striking her hair was as it flew in the wind. How it sometimes looked like silky threads drenched in liquid gold in the sunlight. Immediately, Dick felt his heart skip a beat at that notion, and his brain suddenly blanked as though it was warning him from thinking further or analyzing why his heart reacted.

Watching Dick’s expression change from that of mirth to confusion made Wally question what was going on through his friend’s mind. A brooding Dick never bode well. Wally nudged Dick’s foot under the table, bringing his dark-haired friend back to the physical plane. “What’s wrong?”

There was a long pause as Dick tried to think of an answer. “I don’t know.”

The lost expression on Dick’s face filled the track and field assistant coach with concern. “Hey, it’s not that big of a deal if you have a preference. I was only teasing to begin with,” Wally tried to fix.

“But that’s the thing. I don’t think I do, but… with what you pointed out…” It seems like he did, but he knew that couldn’t be true. Even though he loved Babs and Kori’s hair, he definitely didn’t go out with them for something superficial as their hair color. They had so much more qualities than their looks. But as for why he agreed to sleep with Kay and Yolanda… Although paling in comparison, he remembered focusing on their hair during their trysts, trying to picture— Damn, his head was hurting.

“Well… what about Raven?”

Hearing her name come up on the topic of his relationships left a strange feeling in his mouth, like a bittersweet aftertaste. Raven didn’t belong in the same category. _She can’t._ “What about her?” he asked, tone warning.

Wally internally sighed at the slightest hint of Dick’s hard tone. As usual, his friend would get defensive whenever it comes to her, and Wally would bet his life Dick wasn’t even aware of it or why. He had an inkling to his friend’s behavior, but if he tried to tell Dick about it, he could already predict Dick’s averse attitude and reactions. So, he chose the other option to change the subject. “Nothing,” he replied, shaking his head. “Didn’t you say you were going to catch up with her? What happened?”

At the reminder of incident with Raven earlier, Dick gave an annoyed huff. “She’s avoiding me.”

The situation rang a familiar bell to Wally. He remembered Dick expressing similar annoyance three times before regarding the same person. Once seven years ago, once five years ago, and another three years ago. “I’m going to ask this again: are you sure she wants to be friends with you?” he asked, more in jest. Wally took the insulted glare Dick sent him with a shrug. “Think about it, Dick. You’re the one invading her life since she first came to Titans.”

_“How’s Babs?” a seventeen-year-old Wally asked a seventeen-year-old Dick as they walked around the camp, surveying and checking the facilities before the campers arrive the next day._

_Although one couldn’t tell on foot, from a bird’s eye view, the perimeter of the campsite was shaped as a capital T and surrounded by a forest with the entrance to the campsite at the base of the T. At the apex of the T laid the cabins while the cafeteria and the other main facilities, including a technology center, lined the column of the T. A trail from the left of the T led to the river and on the right was a multi-sports field, an archery range, and other outdoor amenities._

_“Stressed with classes, but there’s nothing Babs can’t handle.” Dick answered as the two exited the gathering hall and walked towards the camp entrance._

_“She does know her way around the digital world.”_

_Dick nodded in agreement, a fondness filling his heart as he thought of how happy Babs would get when she decoded a cryptic software. He’s known Babs for five years and has been dating his first love for two years, yet she never ceases to amuse him._

_Upon reaching the entrance, they noticed the camp director talking to a woman and a young female teenager. At their sudden presence, the three individuals turned their attention to the two friends. Dick immediately locked eyes with the dark-haired teenager, a pair of iolite gemstones gazing back at him. He arched a brow when she suddenly turned her gaze as if the sight of him was repulsing._

_“Woah,” commented Wally, noticing the same action. “Guess your looks can’t win ‘em all.”_

_Dick narrowed his eyes at his friend who simply grinned back at him with a shrug._

_“Grayson. West.”_

_The two males shifted their gazes to see the camp director motioning them over. Wally and Dick casted a quick glance to each other before joining the three individuals. “What’s up, Vic?” Dick questioned._

_Victor introduced both Dick and Wally to the two individuals. “These young men are two of our camp counselors, Richard Grayson and Wallace West. This is Trista, a monk from the Temple of Azarath, who was tasked to escort Raven to us,” Victor said, gesturing to the robed female, who gave a small nod._

_“Hello,” Dick greeted the monk with a returned nod before shifting his attention once again to the girl who was covered in nothing but layers of dark colors. “Nice to meet you, Raven,” he said with a smile._

_The dark-haired girl’s expression remained completely neutral. Her complete disregard for his presence made Wally lean over to whisper in his ear, hilarity evident in his friend’s features, “I like her.”_

_Dick whispered back, “She’s ignoring you, too, you know.”_

_“Yeah, but_ you _being ignored is not an everyday occurrence. And I know it’s bothering you inside,” he grinned. Dick nudged Wally away with his shoulder._

_“Raven will be under Grayson’s guidance,” Victor informed, and Wally tried to mask a sudden laugh behind a cough. Dick didn’t remember seeing her name on his roster, which meant that she was admitted on special circumstances._

_Catching Victor’s silent look, Dick turned to Raven and said, “Let’s get you settled, and I’ll give you an informal tour.” He held out a hand to her. “Let me,” he said, gesturing to her backpack._

_Without even looking at his proffered hand, Raven adjusted her bag on her shoulder. “Is this really necessary?” she asked the monk. Dick retracted his ignored hand and casted Victor a bemused look. Victor responded with a subtle shake of the head._

_Trista nodded to Raven. “For your well-being,” she spoke, her tone sounding as if they have had this conversation before and she had said the same thing. Lips set in a thin line, Raven turned to face Dick’s direction but kept her head casted downwards. He took her mannerisms as permission to lead her to the cabins. And so leaving behind the others, he started walking, and like he thought, she quietly followed a few feet behind._

_It was quite a distance from the entrance to the cabins, and with no one else around but the few staff that were currently nowhere in sight, he was aware of when the terrain changed from paved concrete to dirt ground and back to paved concrete just by the sound of their footsteps._

_“So, Raven…” he started, thinking he should get to know her since she was under his supervision for the summer, “Do you live at the temple?” Several seconds passed and the only thing he heard was the sound of her footsteps following behind him. Thinking she probably found the question a bit too personal, he changed the question, “How was the ride?” Nothing. “Are you hungry?” Still nothing. He paused to check on her and saw she stopped as well. “Everything all right?” She furrowed her brows at him. He raised a brow back at her and, realizing that she still wasn’t going to say anything, asked, “Are you going to keep quiet this whole summer?”_

_There was a few deliberated seconds before she finally spoke, clearly annoyed. “If I said yes, will you stop asking me things?”_

_The question made his lips quirk in amusement at its ridiculousness. “As your camp counselor, I think that will be a little hard to accomplish.”_

_“Isn’t it in a counselor’s description to insight the phrase and set an example that anything is possible when you put your mind to it?”_

_Despite the comment striking a nerve, Dick was entertained by the sass of it. She’s only said two sentences to him, and they packed quite an attitude. A friendly approach was getting nowhere, so he decided to match her temerity. “I can see your enthusiasm for being here, but alright… If you tell me why you’re here, I’ll leave you be.” A smirk appeared on his face when she frowned, knowing full well she won’t answer that. Feeling victorious, he proceeded towards the cabins. “Guess you have to deal with me for the summer.” The annoyed huff he heard behind him made his smirk widen._

“It’s our job to not leave the campers alone,” Dick retorted in defense. Not that he would ever change anything, but with Raven as his responsibility, he was forced to get to know her. “And you know she was put in my charge for a reason,” he pointed out vaguely. Because of her past, the monks decided to enroll her in a camp to help transition her to a school, and Victor recommended him to help Raven adjust. Finding out about what happened to her, how could he not try to do everything he could to fulfill the expectations laid upon him?

Wally deadpanned at Dick’s rejoinder. “You really wanna go there?” the redhead questioned. He thought to leave the subject of Dick’s attitude towards Raven alone, but if Dick was that blind to see it, he wondered if he should just shove it into his friend’s face. “You weren’t her counselor five years ago.”

_Dick escaped into the living room after managing to slip away from the few girls trying to get him to join them in the backyard pool. He was elated to find it was quieter and less occupied inside the manor. The walls of the three-story estate belonging to Connor’s cousin did well to blur out the DJ’s blaring music with a more mellow song playing inside._

_“Kori went upstairs.”_

_Dick turned to see Wally offer him a drink to which he refused. “With who?”_

_“Relax. She’s trying to cheer up a girl who just broke up with her boyfriend. …I think,” Wally answered, opening the can of beer and chugging it halfway._

_Dick ran a hand through his hair, sighing frustratedly. “Can’t even get a moment with her.”_

_Looking at Dick’s agitation, Wally curiously asked, “You really wanna ask her out at some party, though?”_

_Before Dick could respond, the blaring music seeped into the house with a shout. “Wally!” Both Dick and Wally turned to see Connor calling Wally back outside to another round of beer pong. “Let’s go! Roy’s talking shit again, and hell if I’m gonna lose on my birthday,” he said before sliding the backyard sliding doors closed._

_Wally turned to Dick. “Wanna play?”_

_With an amused smile, Dick shook his head. “I want to avoid going out there. You go. I’ll wait for Kori in here.”_

_Wally nodded before leaving Dick behind, the latter making his way to the living room. Taking a seat on the sofa, Dick took notice of the few occupants trying a little too hard to act nonchalant. As he arched a brow at their suspicious behavior, it was then that he caught a faint whiff of the particular smell._

_“Put it out,” he all but demanded. He was already turning a blind eye to all the underage drinking, he didn’t have it in him to add another item on the list. Although between the two, he thought alcohol was the worse vice, but somehow getting drunk seem to be a teenage rite of passage. In payment for his feigned ignorance, Dick mandated Connor to check every driver before they left his party._

_Jaime shook his head. “It ain’t us,” he said and held up his hands._

_Dick looked at the other teenagers that were only a year or two younger than him, and they all showed empty hands. Jaime pointed to the side patio. Dick followed his finger and saw a few individuals passing the lit object. His anger immediately flared when he recognized one of them. In a flash, he moved from his place on the sofa to the sliding door and snatched the joint out of her hand._

_“What the hell, Raven!?”_

_The said sixteen-year-old took a moment to process what just happened. One second she was talking to Klarion about his art, and in the next, she was being reprimanded by someone she hasn’t seen nor heard from since last summer. “Wha- what?”_

_“I get the rebellious phase and the standoffish act, but I call the line at stupidity.”_

_Raven was trying to grasp the fact that Dick was actually glaring at her. “I—”_

_Dick furrowed his brows at her delayed and unfinished responses. “Are you high?”_

_“What? No.”_

_Skeptical, Dick grabbed a hold of her chin and angled her face upwards to look into her eyes. Clear cobalt blue had never been so close to the violet blues she possessed. Flustered, she immediately pushed Dick’s hands away._

_“I’m not high,” she reiterated, perturbed and confused at the sudden skip of her heart. “I was just holding it.”_

_“Why?”_

_“It’s mine,” a mid-pubescent male voice called. “She was only holding it for me so that I could put my jacket on.”_

_Dick turned and saw a pale-skinned, black-haired, lanky kid with rather sharp eyes. “And who the hell are you?” he interrogated._

_“Uh…” the younger boy was taken aback by the aggressive tone. “K-Klarion,” he answered, his voice coming out scratchier._

_Raven scowled at Dick, not understanding the reasoning behind his attitude and the suddenness of it. “Leave him alone, Dick. It’s just weed.”_

_“No, it’s not,” he scowled, veering around to look at her. “It’s you being stupid.” He didn’t see Raven’s offended expression at his words as he turned back to Klarion. “You. Go somewhere else or go home.”_

_The hard glare Dick set on the younger boy made him move immediately. “I-I’ll see you around, Raven,” he bid, feeling like he might be punched soon, and disappeared into the house._

_Raven fixed a baffled and angry stare at Dick. “What’s your problem?”_

_Ignoring the question, he asked instead, “Since when do you attend parties?” Every single time he tried to get her to join the leisure social gatherings with the other campers the last two summers, she always denied him with a firm ‘No.’ And so he relented, letting her be and compromising that she at least participated in an athletic activity. Seeing her now in someone else’s house surrounded by other teenagers, some of whom he knew and others he had no idea where they came from, should make him pleased to know she’s finally making the effort to socialize, but not when she was making friends with the wrong crowd and dressed so—_

_He blinked at her attire, taking in her entire image for the first time. She was dressed in a spaghetti-strap, mid-thigh black one-piece that hugged her sixteen-year-old body, breasts barely showing but unhidden by the way fabric clung to her, which she paired with thigh-high black boots, the white complexion of her thighs peeking between the two-inch gap of dress and boots. It was barely noticeable in the night, but she had dyed her shoulder-length hair a deep purple, almost matching the color of her eyes, which she outlined with black eyeshadow and eyeliner that further emphasized the iolite gems he found beautiful since he first laid eyes on them. Dick never felt himself get so heatedly irate at seeing someone so… so…_

_“What the hell are you wearing?” he found himself unexpectedly voicing._

_Raven involuntarily hugged herself at his comment, scowling deeply while a deep pink hue blossomed across her cheeks. She suddenly felt so exposed under his scrutiny. It wasn’t her choice to wear such a provocative outfit, but she lost a stupid bet with Terra and Kori. “What is with the twenty questions?” she snapped back, getting upset at the sudden rapid beating of her heart. “I don’t see you grilling anyone else about their choice of clothes or object in their hands.”_

_“That’s because…” He found himself coming up at a complete blank, not knowing what he wanted to say to complete his sentence, and his anger was preventing him from trying to understand why. “Forget it,” he said, taking off his navy-blue bomber jacket and thrusting it to her, forcing Raven to catch the thrown clothing item. “Put it on.”_

_She pushed his jacket back into his arms. “No, and I don’t see why I need to listen to you.” Hearing the response aloud made her cringe. She really did sound like a rebelling sixteen-year-old._

_Dick stilled. Why did her words feel so dismissive? “What?”_

_Looking him in the eyes, Raven clarified, “You’re not my counselor, so I’m not your problem to take care of anymore.” It’s the only plausible reason she could gather on why he was concerned with her because the only other time he got remotely this upset with her was last year for running in the middle of the street to push him out of the way of a car that ran a red light. She suffered a twisted ankle and a few scrapes and bruises but nothing life-threatening, but that didn’t prevent Dick from yelling at her in front of everyone. She understood that she was his responsibility, so she knew he was upset that she placed her life in danger’s hands. Although Raven didn’t see how her current situation was similar, nothing else seem to make sense of why he would be upset._

_He never felt himself so affected by someone for being stupid, but at the moment, he wanted nothing more than to shake the girl before him for having such an asinine notion. “I’m always going to care about you, Raven, and I’m pissed you would think anything would change just because I’m no longer your counselor. I never thought you were stupid, but tonight is proving me very wrong,” he spoke in a rather calm and firm tone that made Raven feel ashamed, offended, and warm all at the same time. Dick quietly placed his jacket back in her hands and left her alone on the patio before he really ended up throttling her._

_Dick all but stormed back towards the pool area, looking for something to take the irritableness off. “I’m joining next round,” he announced, joining the guys at the beer pong table, who all looked at him then at each other, sensing his mood._

_Wally, seeing how bothered Dick was, handed his ping pong ball to Connor and approached his closest friend, pulling him to the side. “What’s wrong? Kori rejected you?” Wally questioned with concern, although he thought Dick would be more depressed than angry._

_Dick looked at Wally, confused. “What? No. It’s Raven.”_

_“Raven?” Wally repeated, not expecting the young girl with the reserved attitude to be mentioned at all. The redhead rarely ever saw his friend become so bothered by someone enough to make him want to play drinking games, much less by someone he only associated with during summers. “What happened?”_

_Dick released an aggravated sigh. “Nothing. I just caught her with weed.”_

_“…Oh.”_

_Dick didn’t like Wally’s casual response. “What’s that supposed to mean?”_

_Taken aback by Dick’s defensiveness, Wally was both confused and surprised at this new side he was seeing from his friend. “Well, you said it yourself. It’s nothing, but you seem so worked up. She’s at a party, and I doubt Raven, of all people, will really make any stupid mistakes to put her life in jeopardy. You scolded her enough last year about that.”_

_Scowling at Wally’s reasoning, Dick didn’t like the subtle indication of Wally knowing Raven more than he did. “Have you seen her?” Dick questioned accusingly._

_Wally shook his head. “No. Why? Was she high?” He didn’t think Raven was the type, but he was impressed if she was._

_From Wally’s slight expression, Dick could guess what he was thinking. “Don’t do that. Don’t encourage those behaviors.”_

_Wally couldn’t help the smile from being caught. “I’m not, although you are at_ Conner’s _party,” he pointed out. “I was just thinking that Raven was unexpectedly daring.” He always thought she was unbothered by everything around her._

_Dick shook his head. “She said it wasn’t hers.”_

_Wally’s forehead creased in confusion. “Okay… so what’s the problem?” Wally watched Dick’s features frown even further._

_“She’s dressed like she’s about to give some loser a lap dance,” Dick gritted out._

_Every time Dick opened his mouth, Wally was understanding less of what was bothering his friend. The cross-country runner was having a hard time reading the future detective for the first time. Other than the few times Dick talked to him about dealing with Raven’s aloof attitude during the last two summers, the young dark-haired, pale-skinned girl was never a topic outside of their jobs as camp counselors. When did she become someone important enough for Dick to get so heated?_

_“Dick,” Wally began, and Dick noted there was a shift in the redhead’s tone. “Answer me honestly.” There was a silent pause beneath the cacophony of partygoers and the DJ’s blaring music before Wally asked, “Do you like Raven?”_

_Dick was caught off-guard by the question. “Why are you asking that?”_

_“Because—and don’t take offense to this—I saw Kori earlier, and I don’t see you flipping tables at how she was dressed.” Wally finally recognized a familiar expression on his friend as the dark-haired taller boy reflected on what Wally said._

_Hearing Wally’s perspective made Dick pause. Between Raven and Kori, the girl he liked was way more scantily clad. “You think I’m overstepping my boundaries?”_

_Wally gave a sheepish smile and shrugged. “I get it. She saved your life, so you probably feel the need to look out for her more now because of that.” Upon Wally’s affirmation, Dick sighed, a more deflated one this time. Wally placed an arm around his shoulders. “Come on. Get your mind off it, and let’s just play a game.”_

_An hour later, after playing a few rounds with Wally and the guys and finally seeing and talking to Kori for a bit before she was whisked away by Donna, Dick decided to venture back into the living room. There he saw Raven sitting by herself on the loveseat, arms crossed, looking as if she was put in timeout. So misplaced within her surroundings. He was pleased, however, to see that she was wearing his jacket. Silently, he claimed the seat next to her, but the instant he sat down, he felt her scoot away to the other end._

_“Raven,” he called softly, slightly turning his head to look at her. It took a minute before she finally looked at him, a record shorter compared to when he first met her. He extended his arm out to her and pulled her to his side, hugging her body to his, silently conveying his apology. He felt her stiffen at first before relaxing into his hold. The two stayed like that for a while. Her nestled into his side with his arm around her shoulders, absentmindedly rubbing her upper arm up and down soothingly. Random people walking in and out of the room, glancing at the two in the comfort of each other before going on their way. It wasn’t until ten minutes later that Raven suddenly sat up as if she heard a gunshot just outside, his arm falling from around her._

_“Raven?”_

_He saw the rise and fall of her shoulders as her breathing shifted to deep intakes. Concern overtaking him, he reached out to tuck her hair behind her ear to get a better look at her, but as his fingers grazed against her cheek, she suddenly leaned into his touch. She turned to him slowly, a strange look in her iolite gaze._

_“Dick,” she whispered, and the said man was startled at the gentle yet uninhibited way she had said his name. She got to her feet and stood before him, all the while unzipping his jacket and tossing it over the armrest, his eyes once again laying on the outfit that upset him. He looked up at her, about to question what was wrong but was rendered mute when she suddenly straddled him. Automatically, his arms went around her small waist to half support her lest she fell back and half to still her as he was confused by her actions._

_“Raven?” he repeated, cautiously. “What are you doing?”_

_Raven leaned forward, and in a wash of alarm, Dick quickly angled his face away. His heartbeat quickened exponentially. Did Raven really just try to kiss him? He then felt the warm, wet, and soft pad of her tongue glide up his throat. He stuttered her name, utmost bewildered by her forward behavior and mannerisms. “How much did you drink?” he questioned with a forced chuckle, trying to make light of the situation. She must be drunk. There was no other reason why Raven would be acting so… wanton. She began to lightly suck and nip at the base of his throat, and Dick would lie that he didn’t like the sensation, which caused all sorts of warning bells to ring in his entire body._

_“Okay, let’s get you some water,” he said and gripped her hips, intending to lift her off him. However, his heart faltered when he felt the slow gyrate of her hips on him. And when she reached for the button of his jeans, confusion and caution turned into fear and worry. “Raven, stop.”_

_He clenched his jaw at the unfolding situation. He didn’t want to throw her off him, but she was resisting his attempt to lift her, grinding into him every now and then. Forced to take one hand off her waist to grab at the hands trying to undress him in the middle of the living room on a sofa in someone else’s house, Dick grounded out in a firm tone, “Stop.”_

_Dick was relieved when she finally stilled, her eyes blinking rapidly. Raven looked at Dick, and he saw her crease her forehead, mimicking his fear and confusion. “Did I just…?”_

_She got her answer when a voice not belonging to the either of them said, “Woah.”_

_Both Dick and Raven shifted their heads to see Gar and others all looking at them in shock. Add frustration and irritation to the list of things he was feeling. All in a record second, he saw Raven flush considerably, quickly get off him, and ran past Gar and out the front door, silence left in her wake._

“How could I leave her alone after what happened?” Dick defended.

Wally honestly thought Dick should’ve done just that, but his friend seemed determine to keep the dark-haired girl in his life. And the special attention he showed toward the silent girl with the occasional sharp tongue was palpable to many. It didn’t help matters when he threatened everyone at the party that if ‘anyone continued to talk about what happened, they and their family would not see the light of day.’ As his best friend, Wally felt he needed to point out something.

“I know she means a lot to you, but I don’t remember you talking to her or seeing her the last two years. Why are you going out of your way now?”

Dick always thought Wally had a knack for asking him such probing questions, especially when it came to the women in his life. He knew it was because of the best friend title he held. And every time he asked such questions, Dick was always at a stump to answer.

Wally continued at Dick’s silence, subtly trying to get his point across. “You broke up with Kori a couple of months ago and moved back to Gotham. Before then, she hardly came up in our conversations. Now, you brought her up three times this past week.”

Dick frowned in thought as he realized what Wally was trying to get at. “Are you saying I’m using her as a rebound?”

“It’s a possibility,” Wally replied warily.

Dick shook his head, denying Wally’s notion. “That can’t be. Far from it.”

“How so?” Wally questioned.

Dick didn’t hesitate to answer, voice hard, “Because I will never sleep with her.”

Every reply Dick made seem to further strengthen his first notion about Dick and his relationship with Raven. “What exactly is she to you, Dick?”

It seemed Dick had ruminated on the question before since he answered almost immediately. “A friend.” Not liking Wally's ostensibly skeptical expression to his answer, he asked, “What?”

“Then what about three years ago?”

Dick clenched his jaw, knowing exactly what his friend was referring to. “That meant nothing. She knows that, too.”

Wally didn’t know what Raven felt for or thought about his best friend, but as he heard his friend firmly say those last two sentences, he can’t help but feel some sympathy for her since his friend was adamant at the classification he gave her. For the most part, Wally believed Dick, but he wasn’t sure if Dick believed himself.

* * *

Raven entered her studio apartment with the only thought of going under her covers and hiding from the entire world. As she thought of her encounters with the Wayne heirs, a surge of various emotions shifted through her depending on which brother she thought of. Guilt towards Dick. Embarrassment and a subtle appreciation towards Damian. The only constant emotion was frustration at herself.

Thinking of Damian caused her to remember his handkerchief in her bag. Retrieving it along with her underwear, Raven strode to her bathroom to handwash the item. As she gently washed the fabric, she couldn’t help the small smile. She didn’t think anything could unsettle Damian Wayne, but she recalled how flustered he looked when she caught his cloth before it landed in the trashcan. Indifferent as he seemed, Damian was surprisingly considerate. Her heart skipped a beat as she remembered how he cleaned her hands. It was completely unexpected. It was as if the more she found out about him, the more she knew nothing about him, only causing her to want to get to know him more.

Rinsing the handkerchief, Raven noticed the corner of the cloth had his initials elegantly stitched in light green thread. She then took a second to look at the handkerchief and saw how intricately made it was. How could he easily throw something so beautiful? Gently wringing the fabric of excess water, Raven went to her balcony, her favorite part of her home as it overlooked the bay area. She hung the object up to air dry, making sure it wouldn’t fly with the wind.

Although Damian had assured her he was okay to continue with their… arrangement, the young psych major knew she couldn’t actually continue with such acts as much as she could help it. She needed to solve her problem herself somehow, which led her to think of Dick.

She tried to figure out why it was him that she only reacted to. She agonized over the reason constantly. Her mind replayed the first time it happened and all the proceeding events that led up to it. It was the first time they had ever argued. The fear at the idea of Dick hating her as she sat on the couch didn’t leave her mind until he came back an hour later and sat down and hugged her, washing away whatever qualms plagued her mind. Somewhere during, her mind lost consciousness. And the next thing she was fully aware of, she was straddling his lap. Raven shook her head, not wanting to remember anything else.

Even now, when she thought of him, appreciation and a warm affection filled her, as well as the current guilt of how she has been recently treating him. She needed to rectify leaving him alone earlier when he probably went out of his way to see her. But where would she begin to start when she was having such a difficult time standing just next to him? And with news that he and Kori broke up, Raven was unsure of how she would react around him next time. No matter what, she knew she needed to try. It’ll be like a form of exposure therapy, she concluded. And if she was desperate, she had no choice but to depend on Damian.

* * *

Although uncaring about a lot of things, Damian was a rather curious person, and when intrigued about something, he was the type that needed answers to every question plaguing his mind in order to be fully satisfied. Due to that personality trait of his, the young half-Wayne found himself, for the first time, abusing his role as the student government president to answer his current curiosity.

A brief thought of asking the person directly crossed his mind but left as quickly, like the sparks from a bonfire disappearing into the night. Typing and clicking away on the keyboard, Damian pulled up Raven’s file. He wanted to understand her condition and why his brother, of all people, triggered it. Thinking he might find something in her records, he read up on her document. He learned of the high school she was enrolled in, how she attended Titans for three summers (which explained how she knew Grayson), and how she used to live at the Temple of Azarath. He found this fact interesting. But something else caught his attention more. He furrowed his brows, staring at the PC screen. Her file only contained information up to seven years ago. Everything before then was missing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who waited for an update. I know this chapter was late, especially since the first three came out about a week apart. I really wanted to try to get this chapter out sooner but life must continue and work is calling me. With that said, I will try my hardest to do monthly updates but I cannot make any promises. Thank you to everyone reading this sentence :))


	5. Styles of Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “There aren’t sizeable global differences in the way men and women talk. However, there are meaningful differences in language use from one person to the next, and the words we use are so informative that strangers can get accurate impressions of us by overhearing a few minutes of our conversation (Holleran et al., 2009). Our personalities are apparent in the words we use [or don't use]” (Miller, 2012).

Tim released a noisy yawn, blinking tired tears away as he followed after the oldest and youngest Wayne towards Gotham Stadium. He had pulled an all-nighter, wanting to finish a legal research paper, and had looked forward to sleeping in till Saturday afternoon, yet Dick had visited the Wayne manor to pound on his bedroom door at seven in the morning, spewing something about showing face at today’s baseball game. “Brotherly Support” as Dick so puts it, but Tim thought “Damage Control” was more fitting for the fact that the brother they were meant to “support” wasn’t Jason but the little blood brat. Well, maybe “little” wasn’t an apt description if he thought about their height.

Looking at the back of their brunet heads, Damian was a good few inches taller than Dick and almost a foot taller than him. _Genetics_ , he internally scoffed. The Wayne in Damian was rather potent for anyone with eyes. However, for everything Wayne Damian was on the outside, on the inside, Damian was all al Ghul, albeit the boarding school managed to reign in the al Ghul-ness to a considerable degree compared to when Tim first met Damian.

Hot-tempered and prideful. That was what Tim first thought. Nothing but scorn was written on Damian’s face when he first entered the Wayne manor, and it had pissed Tim off to know someone like him, who lacked the consideration and leadership qualities Dick possessed or the bravado and determination Jason exudes, was the real son of someone he greatly admired. It didn’t help that every time Damian was spoken to, the ‘new family member’ responded with nothing but disrespect. Tim had confronted Damian for it only to receive a punch in the jaw.

Suddenly feeling a pair of eyes on him, Damian glanced at Tim to find himself on the receiving end of a glare and scowled in response.

Tim touched his jaw as he recalled the memory. It had hurt like hell, and it took all four of Dick, Jason, Bruce, and Alfred to break up their fight. A little irked at the reminder that his jaw took a whole week to heal, Tim tsked and brushed past Damian. “I’m gonna get something to eat,” he muttered with a quick and annoyed glance towards Dick, choosing to blame him for his irritableness.

Dick arched a brow as Tim headed off to the food booths, disappearing into the crowd. He shifted his eyes to Damian, wondering if anything had transpired, only to see him uncomfortably glancing at his surroundings.

“This place is infested with people.”

Although understanding his sentiments, Dick casted a pointed look towards his youngest brother. “Try not to use words that demean people to bugs or rodents, at least.”

Damian’s brows furrowed at the statement. “What do you mean?”

At Damian’s lack of comprehension towards his words, Dick sighed. Damian always had an eloquently unique way of expressing himself. As long as it wasn’t intentional, he surmised. “Nothing,” Dick replied with a slight shake of his head and then gave an amused smile, “I suppose it’s still better than the words that come out of Jason’s mouth.” _Speaking of… he was supposed to meet us here_ , Dick thought and started to scan his surroundings, searching the numerous faces of the student body for the brother who proudly stuck to his personal ideals.

Damian frowned, not understanding what Dick was referring to when his eyes landed on his second oldest brother casually leaning over—

“Why is she…?!”

The underlying slight edge in Dick’s tone—almost unnoticeable that Damian wouldn’t have caught it if he hadn’t lived in the Wayne manor and spent years with the individual beside him—caused Damian to turn his head to his older brother only to see Dick blur past him.

“‘Nervous?’” Jason repeated, bringing a hand to his chin as if to show he was contemplating on the question that was just asked of him. He was waiting for his brothers by the stadium when a female came up to him asking if she could interview him about his current emotional state prior to the first game of the season. “Can’t say that I am,” he replied and watched as the young woman quickly typed his response in her phone.

They were currently under a tree outside the stadium that was a considerable distance away from the crowd of people, taking shade from the morning sun. He had suggested the location to better hear each other, also for the fact that when they started the interview, they kept being interrupted by people coming up to him to wish him good luck on the game.

“Then what emotion are you currently feeling?” she then asked, but the question was lost in his ears as Jason tilted his head, studying the person before him.

She was attractive, Jason considered. A little dark compared to his preferred taste, with the way she was dressed in black boots, black jeans, and a black hoodie. The only color on her body was a green handkerchief that was sticking out of her pocket, on the verge of falling out. His eyes travelled back to her face. If anything, the dark layers contrasted her pale skin, making her features more prominent, especially the violet in her eyes. Hmm… now that he looked at her more closely, she looked familiar. However, rather than her face, her name was ringing the familiar bell in his head more.

Raven, she introduced herself as when she came up to him for an assignment regarding one of her psych classes. She was obviously a student at the university, but he couldn’t recall any memories with the girl before him. He looked down, brows creased, trying to place the familiarity of her name and face. … A thought occurring to him, he snapped his head to her and narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

Raven was slightly startled by the way he suddenly lifted his head to look at her. “Is something the matter?” she questioned since he ignored her previous question and did nothing but stare at her. She then saw him eye her up and down as if trying to peer at her body through her clothes before asking,

“Did we sleep with each other?”

It must be a Wayne requirement to ask such out-of-left-field questions. The absurdity of the unanticipated question caused Raven to simply blink at the second Wayne son before her.

Jason wasn’t sure if he should take her silent and still reaction as an affirmation or a negation. His brows then raised when he saw her features formulate into a frown. Her frown must mean that she was upset at him for only remembering her now after spending a night together. So, that meant yes, right?

“No,” she responded with a firm and deep tone compared to the civil tone she used when she was questioning his thoughts and feelings about today’s baseball game. The unexpected change in demeanor caused the corners of his mouth to lift in amusement.

Although she was the one that approached him and asked him questions, she didn’t really seem interested in his answers. He had initially assumed her statement about an assignment was a ruse to pick him up. After all, previous similar encounters led him to that conclusion; however, her apathy couldn’t further emphasize that her psych assignment was real. But then the notion of sleeping together broke that cool appearance of hers, piquing the little interest he had towards her even more.

“You see,” he started, taking a step towards her with a slight tilt of his head. “I was thinking you looked familiar, but I couldn’t recall where.” Jason saw her frown even further, fueling his amusement.

“And sleeping together was your first thought?” she questioned back, unamused.

He shrugged a shoulder and supplied, “Thought we might’ve shared a hot drunken night of passion, maybe.”

Raven didn’t expect Jason to know who she was since she had never talked to him before now. She also didn’t expect to be having such a conversation for her first interaction with him. It wasn’t a secret that Jason was a notorious flirt, and the words he spewed only confirmed how much of a scoundrel he could be. Choosing him as a subject for her psych paper might have been a mistake. “Passing faces in school didn’t cross your mind at all?”

Was that disgust he detected? Detest? Jason grinned. Who was this girl and how could he have not slept with her, yet? He desperately needed to correct that. He was about to take another step towards her when someone swiftly and smoothly inserted themself between him and Raven, forcing himself to take a step back.

“Weren’t you supposed to meet us, Jason?”

The familiar voice and especially the cold timbre quickly dispelled the annoyance he felt for the interrupter, which was now replaced with confusion at the glare he was receiving from his older brother. “Morning, Dick,” he greeted casually. “I was on my way to meet you guys when Raven here suddenly approached me.” Was it his imagination or did it seem like Dick wanted to punch him? He never knew Dick was anal about punctuality.

Hearing that it was Raven that approached Jason caused Dick to turn to the individual that had been troubling his thoughts for the past week.

Raven avoided looking at him. She expected he would be upset with her after leaving him behind on Monday and without so much of a word since. The penetrating gaze he had on her confirmed it.

“Raven,” he regarded.

Raven almost flinched at his tone. On the surface, it would seem like Dick was casually greeting a friend, but Raven felt the reserved coldness underlying her name.

“I didn’t know you had an interest in baseball. From what I remember, you took up swimming at Titans.”

She knew he was upset, but she didn’t think he would be… angry. Why did she feel like she was sixteen all over again?

The mention of the summer camp made Jason realize why Raven seemed familiar. Although he never attended Titans like Dick and Tim did, he and some friends had wreaked some rivalry havoc and had crashed some parties hosted by the pretentious campers. During some of those escapades, he remembered hearing word about Dick’s bias for a particular black bird. Judging by Dick’s current attitude and Raven’s name, she must be the rumored favorite camper from back then. _So,_ she’s _Dicky’s little birdie_ , the second oldest Wayne mused. He didn’t think Dick was interested in her type.

“A little bird that can swim? Now that’s a sight I want to see,” Jason couldn’t help but tease, suggestive tone purposely obvious.

There are a few things that would set off Dick, and out of all the brothers, Jason knew almost all of them, having been around him the longest and also being one of those ticks. It always entertained him when he found another thing that would break the kind and cool composure that belonged to Dick Grayson. How interesting that flirting with the little black bird was one of them.

Such shame that a new interest of his was immediately taken away. It was like hanging a juicy steak in front of a starving animal. Unless he wanted to ring death’s doorbell, Jason knew that even a single feather on the little bird was now off-limits. _Quoth the Raven,_ _Nevermore_ , the baseball captain smiled amusedly under Dick’s dark gaze. _Seriously_ , Jason thought with annoyance. If anyone had luck with women, it was Dick. After all, the one woman he was remotely serious about had loved the older asshole.

Damian stood a little off to the side, arms crossed, silently watching the whole scene. He initially was going to join them but decided to take the opportunity to witness how Raven would react with Dick next to her, curious to see how long she could be around his brother before she regresses to her libidinous state. So far, he observed, she appeared to be normal. If normal consisted of avoiding his brother’s eyes, he thought with a raised brow. If she wanted to keep the way she reacted to his brother hidden from said person, didn’t she know that the way she was behaving will only do the opposite? Since she knew his brother for so long, she should know how relentlessly inquisitive Dick could be. Damian scoffed. She’s behaving rather stupidly.

What Damian found more surprising, however, was his oldest brother’s current attitude. He had seen Dick get upset with Jason numerous times in the past, less frequently after moving out of the mansion, but not once did he see his two brothers physically fight despite claims from Alfred that they had brawled several times prior to his arrival to the estate. Right now, though, Dick looked at Jason as if he wanted to punch him. There was a silent cold warning that exuded from his brother.

Damian knew Raven and Dick were friends, but he had never seen Dick get so protective of a friend as he currently was with her. Was it just because she was a female? But if he remembered correctly, Jason had flirted with Kori in the past, but Dick didn’t react the same way as he did now.

He noticed the tension in Dick’s demeanor soften as his brother turned back to Raven, gently lifting her chin to make her look at him, which she shyly did. Damian wasn’t able to catch what his brother said, but he saw Raven sigh as if she was caught red-handed and knew she could do nothing except face the consequences for her actions. He watched as she fished her phone from her pocket, passing the object to his brother.

“I have your number now,” Damian heard Dick say to Raven after storing his number and returning her phone. Her mouth moved, but Damian was still unable to pick up her voice. Whatever she said, though, caused a small smile to return to Dick, who then ruffled her head affectionately. “I’ll contact you later.”

He saw her nod, bid his brothers goodbye, and finally left, heading his direction. Her stride faltered when she finally caught sight of him, eyes expressing a slight alarm. As Damian locked eyes with her, he was surprised to find that he was curious to what was currently going through her mind. What was she thinking upon seeing him? Or, from the light blush on her face, were her thoughts filled with his brother? Was she already affected by that simple head rub? His eyes ran down her body, assessing her for any other signs of her condition. It didn’t look like she was in any sexual state.

“Hi, Raven.”

Damian turned his head to see Tim appear beside him, and his eyes followed his brother as he approached Raven.

“Hi, Tim,” Raven returned naturally.

The youngest Wayne arched a brow. She seemed to get along well with his brothers. He suddenly felt a twinge of annoyance arising, probably due to this whole ludicrous situation that had him meeting with his irritating brothers on a Saturday to watch a sport he had no interest in when he could be doing something more productive with his time. Internally releasing an aggravated sigh to help rid the annoyance, Damian strode forward, silently passing his third brother and the female he shared one class with.

“Came to watch the game?”

“Kind of,” Raven answered Tim, unconsciously tightening her grip on her phone as Damian passed by. A quick set of emotions swept through her that she couldn’t really depict what it was she felt exactly. Alarm? Worry? Confusion…? … _Relief_.

She shouldn’t have expected that Damian would say anything to her while his brothers were around. After all, despite sharing a class, the only conversation they had this past week was her thanking him for holding the door open as they exited the room. She couldn’t even consider that a conversation since he only gave a short nod before going on his way. She should have taken those accounts as a clear indicator that Damian didn’t see it necessary to associate with her other than when or if she asked for his assistance.

She preferred it this way. She did. Hence, the relief she felt when he simply walked by her. But then… every time she caught the dark gaze of his deep green irises, a certain feeling blossomed within her, a simmering low heat that started from her chest and spread to her fingertips. She classified it as embarrassment as thoughts of their trysts popped into her head against her wishes. But if it was embarrassment… why did her heart currently feel as though someone had bypassed its ribcage and prodded it?

The current feelings going through her was the reason why she wanted to avoid the Wayne heirs in the first place. If possible, she would willingly trade spots with any of the secret admirers currently looking their way.

“One of my papers require me to write the emotional and mental state of a team leader prior to a big event,” Raven supplied her vague affirmation to Tim’s question with an explanation.

Tim raised a brow. “And you chose Jason?” he asked, briefly glancing at the said brother conversing with Dick and Damian.

Raven internally laughed, understanding the absurdity of her choice but refrained from voicing her thoughts. She shrugged a shoulder instead. “Given the time when it was assigned, it was almost as if the professor was forcing me to choose him.”

Tim chuckled at Raven’s response. “Got what you needed?”

Shaking her head, Raven replied while sidestepping around Tim, wanting to leave the area as soon as possible when she noticed the number of students staring in their direction growing. “You guys are busy.”

Tim nodded and waved Raven goodbye before finally joining his brothers. “I didn’t do anything,” he heard Jason say to Dick, who had a look full of warning. The third adopted Wayne briefly wondered what Jason had done to warrant that look, but getting caught in quarrels between Jason and Dick wasn’t something he fathomed. You could never expect what Jason would do, and Dick’s anger was something that should be avoided at all costs.

Tim instead looked to Jason and commented, inadvertently helping the light tension in the air to cool, “You seem to have made a name for yourself, huh? To be interviewed and all.”

Jason shifted his attention to Tim. He shrugged nonchalantly, yet the arrogant smile he wore was suffocating. “Meh, I just whack a ball and run around.”

“Only you would brag about something like that,” Tim said, practically rolling his eyes.

Jason lightly chuckled. “As much as I do want to brag about how _I_ am the star player and how _I_ led an undefeated team for the past three years, I don’t think that crowd over there is looking this way because of me.”

Tim knew what crowd of students Jason was referring to. It was how he easily found his brothers when they weren’t where he last left them. “This is probably the first time they saw us all together on school grounds, especially with Dick being back. It works in our favor, though, otherwise this whole meeting would be useless.”

“Since this is my first game of the season, I don’t know if I should be hurt that I’m not the focus within our context,” Jason pointed out with an amused grin, tilting his head and letting his eyes slide to Damian.

Damian scowled and crossed his arms, “It’s unnecessary. I don’t care what the public thinks.”

“Don’t worry. We can tell,” Tim replied, making Damian scowl further.

Wayne Enterprise’s PR had suggested to Bruce that family public outings outside of company functions might benefit his reputation. All because of that damn article that was published earlier that week. It was nothing but a nuisance, Damian thought.

“Now, now,” Jason chastised. “Should we really give them a show and hug it out?” he asked only to receive glares from all three of his brothers. Jason all but rolled his eyes, “Fine. I’m gonna go get ready for the game. I’ll meet you guys afterwards.” Several seconds passed and Damian, Tim, and Dick looked at Jason, who had yet to move a foot from his place. “What? No ‘Good luck, Jason’? Gee, thanks.”

“With an ego like yours, I didn’t think you’d need it,” Dick responded in an harsh tone.

Jason could still feel the underlying animosity directed towards him for flirting with his little bird. He temporarily wondered how long it would last. “Correct as always, Dick,” Jason said, unbothered. “Well… _I’m_ not one of the brothers the papers are pitting against each other, so have fun.”

“That’s because the public already thinks of you as a lost cause,” piped Tim with a smirk.

Jason let the quip easily roll off him and draped an arm on the shortest adopted Wayne. “I never told you this, Tim, but I owe some of my baseball success to you.” When Tim furrowed his brows, Jason continued, “Every time I hit a homerun, it was your head I imagined. Look out for one today.” The second oldest brother winked, earning himself a glare from his shorter brother. Jason simply laughed and finally left his brothers.

As he strode back to the stadium, Jason spotted a green handkerchief on the ground and instantly knew who the owner was. He should’ve told her it was about to fall from her pocket when he first noticed. The second Wayne brother bent down to pick up the piece of fabric. Although he said he wouldn’t lay a hand on her, he did find the violet-eyed fowl to be quite entertaining. Or maybe he simply found anyone who hated his guts to be amusing. He must be a masochist, Jason mused as he stuffed the handkerchief in his jacket pocket. But wasn’t it human nature to want things that you can’t have? To venture into a place that had ‘no trespassing’ signs plastered all over? To play with someone else’s toy? The corners of his mouth quirked. He wasn’t doing anything wrong, he reasoned. He would be simply returning a lost item to its owner. In fact, he should be praised for going out of his way to do such a good deed.

“Another game for Gotham,” Gar pointed out after looking at the scoreboard. The game was near its end, and the visiting team had lost too many innings to even call it a close game.

“I never thought baseball was a team sport, but you can tell Jason, Roy, and Connor are on the same vibe,” Terra commented from Gar’s left just as Roy threw the ball towards Connor, the third baseman, who outed the runner. Connor then quickly threw the ball to home base and the last runner was out. “No wonder he’s called ‘The Hot Connor.’”

Gar scowled at Terra acknowledging Connor’s baseball nickname. “Hey!”

Ignoring him, Terra peered past Gar and noticed Raven, who sat on Gar’s right, wasn’t even watching the game. “So, what are you going to do?”

Raven lifted her head from her from her phone. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” she replied. Since her interview with Jason was a bust, the young psych major needed a new subject for her paper. She had needed to interview the baseball captain before the game not after.

“You can always write about me,” Gar interjected, causing both females to mirror a deadpanned expression.

“And what are you a leader of?” Raven questioned with an arch brow.

“Nothing,” Terra spoke, preventing Gar from giving an absurd answer.

“Ugh, no fun,” Gar crossed his arms and pouted. “Fine. Fail your paper.”

Terra rolled her eyes at her boyfriend’s immaturity and pushed him back in his seat so that she could talk to Raven better. “You said it needed to be before a big event, right?” Raven nodded. “Just interview that person in charge of the next school event.”

“And what is the next event?” Raven questioned back. Just thinking about going up to strangers still takes a toll out of her. She had to gather her wits just to approach Jason, who she didn’t even want to interview in the first place. It was a horrible choice to have considered him, she thought as she recalled his absurd questions. It was her bad luck to be given such criteria for her term paper.

Looking at the school calendar on the Gotham University app, Terra answered. “You’re in luck. The only event before the deadline is Charter Day. There’s a whole bunch of club leaders you can choose from.”

“Why don’t you just interview the student government president?” chimed Gar. “He’s in charge of the whole thing, and don’t you have a class with him?"

Interview Damian? If Raven was honest, like most people, she was curious about the Wayne heir. How could she not, especially after her recent interactions with him? But for that same reason, she also didn’t want to bother him anymore than she did already. “Know anybody else?”

Gar knew Raven well enough to know that the idea of interviewing student government president wasn’t appealing to her. “Baby Wayne too unapproachable, huh?” he guessed. “I mean, he does seem to look at everyone as if they’re mud caught on his designer clothes.” And then he suddenly scowled, clenched his fist, and shouted, “That stupid prez once swatted my hand away as if I was a dung beetle when all I did was touch his shoulder!”

Raven didn’t think what Gar said about Damian was wrong, but she still found herself saying, “He’s not that bad,” and had to wonder why she felt the need to defend the youngest Wayne when he was blatantly ignoring her presence as well. However, her words were drowned out by the sudden cheer of the crowd around them.

Too loud for her liking and with the purpose of interviewing Jason Todd now a fruitless endeavor, Raven decided she was just wasting her time watching a game she had no interest in. After saying goodbye to Gar and Terra, Raven tripped and shimmied herself through the obstacle of patron legs within the stadium seats until she was finally at the exit hall. On her way out, her feet paused in stride once more when she caught the sight of the person occupying her thoughts just a moment ago, the loud cheers of the crowd echoing faintly around her.

He was standing by the entrance, hands stuffed in his pockets, staring at the sky. Or was it the trees? She couldn’t tell since the afternoon sunlight casted a blinding contrast from the darkened hall, highlighting the front of his profile. Raven has been around Dick on numerous occasions, and it would be a lie to say she hasn’t acknowledged how handsome the oldest Wayne son was, but there was something about Damian Wayne’s profile she found deeply appealing compared to anyone else. He always seemed to be lost in thought, but she knew very well how attentive he was to his surroundings. As if on cue, he eyes slid to her, noticing her presence.

She’s been hyperaware of him lately that she’s starting to find it rather annoying. She saw his eyes roam over her as they did earlier in the day. It was an action she noticed him doing whenever they happen to see each other. And each time, the unwanted skin-crawling sensation she felt when others had done the same action was absent. It must be because she knew that he was simply assessing her current state and nothing more.

“I’m fine,” she answered his unasked question without meaning to. She had intended to walk by him as he had done several times to her. No eye contact, no words.

Damian searched her face, wondering if he sensed irritation coming from her. She held his gaze, and he noted she still held a light pinkness to her cheeks. He supposed there were degrees to her libidinous state until she loses her sense of control. She must have met his brother on her way out, he assumed. That or she was still affected by him from earlier.

Perturbed that he continued to eye her, Raven added, “It’s less likely to happen if we’re with others.” It seemed her statement was plausible enough to not warrant any other inquiring looks or questions since the only sounds heard came from the stadium.

Not knowing what else to say, she decided to continue with her plan of heading home, so she bypassed him and proceeded towards the metro station. She barely took five steps when she finally heard his deep, smooth voice, making her pause in stride for the umpteenth time regarding him.

“You joined Titans,” he spoke, and she turned her body to face him, the sun now behind her. “Why?”

She briefly wondered if either Dick or Tim had told him that information. More than that, however, was the fact that he questioned her motive. As much as she was readily supplying information regarding her unknown condition despite not wanting to, her past was not a topic she liked to touch, much less even think about. Even Dick knew very little about it, and what he did know he learned from the monks just because she was his charge for two summers. If she chose to not answer, what would he say? Why did he want to know in the first place?

“Why are you asking that?”

“Simple curiosity. You don’t have anything on you prior to seven years ago. The first thing that was noted in your file was your enrollment at Titans,” Damian easily answered.

It was for certain; Damian Wayne really had a knack for impressing and upsetting her at the same time. Should she be offended about the invasion of privacy or pleased that he was forthright about it? How does she even respond to him?

She could guess why he looked into her since her condition doesn’t make for common occurrence. And with a rich and powerful background like the one Damian possessed, it was only natural to understand what he was dealing with in order to protect against scheming leeches should she happen to be one. She understood this, yet she couldn’t help but say, “I must come off as untrustworthy.”

The student government president was somewhat taken aback by the psych major’s statement or rather the tone of it. Maybe because he had heard a similar tone just a week ago, but she sounded upset even though her neutral expression didn’t portray the same. He took his hands out his pockets, standing straighter as he addressed her. “That wasn’t the reason I looked into you.” Her forehead wrinkled slightly, unbelieving of him. “I was the one that offered to assist you. If I found you untrustworthy, I wouldn’t have proposed such an arrangement in the first place.”

And just like that, Raven felt her heartbeat slightly quicken. No longer able to look into his green irises, she averted her gaze, a warmness creeping up her neck. For a mafia heir, he certainly had a way with words. Damian didn’t talk much, but when he did, the words he says always seemed to throw her off unexpectedly. However, his proclamation didn’t excuse his actions.

Damian blinked at the sudden side glare she sent him and also noted that her blush had deepened. What exactly was going through her mind?

“It’s illegal to do that,” she spoke, surprising Damian at the scolding tone she used. He creased his brows at her, and Raven thought she probably shouldn’t have used that word. “Illegal” was most likely not in the vocabulary of someone who grew up in the mafia. “The fact you did that can make me distrustful of you.”

Damian felt a sudden strange sensation shoot through him, alarming him and making him frown at the unpleasantness of it. _Just because of what she said?_ According to the papers, the whole city distrusted him. The reason he was at a stupid ballgame was to raise his reputation due to his al Ghul bloodline. He’s used to people doubting him. But not once did he care. He never felt the need to prove nor change anyone’s opinion about himself. And yet…

“Quid pro quo,” she suddenly spoke, and Damian remained silent at the sudden Latin phrase. “My interview with your brother didn’t go well, so I need a new subject for my paper.”

He creased his brows, trying to interpret the intention of her statement. “And you want me to help you find someone to interview?”

Raven blinked at his inference and gave a small smile. She should’ve known direct statements were more appropriate when talking with him. Given their past conversations, Damian Wayne was indeed the type to speak directly what was on his mind. Maybe it was precisely that reason that his words have a tendency to catch her off guard.

She shook her head. “You, Damian,” she called his name, looking into his peridot-like eyes with her amethyst-like ones, “I want to interview you.” More than anyone else, she wanted to know more about him. “I can answer your questions, but it’s only right you answer some of mine.”

Damian didn’t like being interviewed nor did he like people prying into his life, but the unpleasantness he felt moments ago and the way she had called his name was compelling him to agree. “Is this part of our social exchange?”

He watched as the ebony-haired woman before him pause, expression unreadable, before a light laugh escaped her lips, making his heart skip a beat. If Damian had to give a rationale to Dick’s protective attitude of the woman in front of him, it must be for this exact reason. Something told him that the sight and sound before his eyes was something he wouldn’t be able to forget.

“Yes,” Raven answered with a nod, an unusual but pleasant mirthful tone reaching his ears. “You could say that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been awhile. This was one of those slow transition chapters that needed to get out, so not much... Hopefully, the future chapters will have something worth reading. I appreciate all the comments, kudos, and the occasional nudge to check if this story is still alive. Thank you to everyone reading this sentence.


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